Touching Points

Painted walls
along sterile halls,
echo with the sighs
and loud, piercing cries,
of souls trapped
in weak fragility-
web-like crevasses
and lines etched deeply
into paper-thin,
translucent skin.

Memories
behind plexiglass,
encapsulate lives
into touching points
along a timeline-
though tears pool behind
clouded eyes reliving
each vivid moment
as though it was,
only yesterday.

Gnarled, blue-veined
hands reach out to hold
onto those long gone,
echoes of an era
where their minds linger-
with time fading as
sands inside each one’s
hourglass falls til,
the final grain has
landed quietly.

Amid this
melancholic haze,
music sets toes a
tapping, hands clapping,
voices singing loud-
bingo games filled with
sporadic laughter,
as crinkled eyes
twinkle, embracing
every second.

Wisdom shines
her glory within
their joy, drowning out
the ringing call bells
and incessant yells-
bittersweet moments,
etched in my mind as
I’m sent home to start,
a brand new chapter.