Szentirmai Maria

Ballet dancer

Ballet-dancer suffering from alzheimer’s disease

 

Dazzlingly white walls, furniture, mantle,

cold eyed fear.

The examination room is a restrained breath,

slowing heart rhythm,

stopping blood in vessels

listening hemoglobin in blood.

Her loved ones were comforted,

she did not know how needlessly humiliating

replicate names, dates,

counting backwards,

like a schoolgirl.

Objects lessened together with their

alphabetic sequences, face-contours faded,

than fell into pit, like soldiers.

She was sitting in the lounge,

the nurse combed her neatly.

Tchaikovsky music infiltrated

hrough the open window,

and Odett wxpanded her wings,

precious neck leaned to her prince,

and nurses were watching the

breathtaking performance.