Nursing Home – A Haiku Chronicle by Dennis Lange

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Nursing Home – A Haiku Chronicle by Dennis Lange

February 26, 2012 by thebardonthehill

Nursing Home – A Haiku Chronicle
(Feb.24, 2012)

Perfect storm
Of factors at once
Point one way.

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Reaction
When told him the news –
“That sounds good.”

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Mixed signals:
What’s taking so long?
Don’t want to.

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Checking in,
Piles of paperwork –
New roommate.

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Busyness;
New, discordant sounds.
Upsetting?

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I describe
Because he can’t see –
Almost blind.

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He ate well.
I fed him each bite.
Will the staff?

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But I saw
When I fed him lunch,
A cheek’s tear.

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For Mother
65 years wed –
Lonely bed.

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I did well
Till the long trip home –
Feelings welled.

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photo by Susan Sermoneta (Susan NYC) via Flickr

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* The haiku I write are lines of 3-5-3 syllables instead of 5-7-5.
See Haiku article here for explanation, if needed:

https://thebardonthehill.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/haiku/

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12 Responses

on February 26, 2012 at 11:01 PM | Reply Symanntha Renn

Bless your heart! Do random check-ins so the nurses/staff never know when to expect you. He’ll be okay!
- on February 26, 2012 at 11:25 PM | Reply thebardonthehill
  
  Thanks. My mother will be visiting him daily except for the day of her surgery and perhaps a day or two afterwards. During those days, I’ll drop in on him and perhaps other members of the family will, too.
on February 26, 2012 at 11:20 PM | Reply ssermoneta

A moving, poignant haiku. I know well the feeling of leaving a parent at a nursing home.
- on February 26, 2012 at 11:26 PM | Reply thebardonthehill
  
  Thanks. I hope you feel that I’ve used your photo well.
on February 27, 2012 at 9:22 AM | Reply annedearle

So sad, you, have my sympathy
on February 27, 2012 at 12:50 PM | Reply Maggie

Your poems show economy of words and restraint, leaving room for great feeling. They are indeed moving. I especially liked the line, “Will the staff?” It reminds me of when my mom was in the nursing home and I discovered that they weren’t giving her breakfast (and it was all right for her to eat it then) before her early-morning appointment for dialysis. I discussed it with the director of nursing and he assured me this would be rectified. I wasn’t satisfied with “The kitchen isn’t open yet at that time.” So I brought breakfast foods in to be kept in the kitchen, and all I needed was someone to fix her something. Yes, they did it for awhile, but then that stopped. There isn’t much else that made me so angry and frustrated. I agree with Symanntha. Do random checks. Show up at various times so they don’t know when you’re going to be there.
- on February 27, 2012 at 5:24 PM | Reply thebardonthehill
  
  Thanks for the comments and suggestions. We will have to keep a sharp eye on the situation.
on February 29, 2012 at 6:05 AM | Reply Dennis N. O'Brien

I can certainly relate to these Haiku.
on March 1, 2012 at 10:20 PM | Reply kathryningrid

Deeply touching. I am especially moved by #8 (But I saw). Beautiful encapsulation of quite a journey, my friend.
- on March 2, 2012 at 11:06 AM | Reply thebardonthehill
  
  Thanks. Haiku seems to be perfectly suited to capture a moment. That one I shared with my readers but not with my family, especially not my mother. It would have been one more arrow into a wounded heart.
on March 1, 2012 at 11:57 PM | Reply Lindy Lee

The cared for becomes the care giver…
- on March 2, 2012 at 11:01 AM | Reply thebardonthehill
  
  And the cycle is completed.