It eats its own brain
once attached headfirst to a rock
where it will spend the rest of its brief life
the brain no longer needed since
it’s never going to move again
I recently settled in Sunset Lodge
last stop assisted living
in Walnut Creek, California
living a sessile existence
in a miniscule apartment
On the windowless sixteenth floor
never going anywhere again
no trips to science museums
wobbling on a walker
no beach vacations
Dipping bunioned toes in salty brine
no need for a brain at all, a good thing
since I am losing words each week
walking backward to age one or two
parents beaming at balloon and banana
Vocabulary dwindling daily
until I don’t know
my daughter’s name
and it doesn’t really matter
anymore
