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Neighborhood Buddhist with Alzheimer's

by Sophia Falco

Not from the heavens, but a sign from above I spotted him, sitting on a wooden bench at the park after reading:

The Buddhist on Death Row as he watched on my basketball taking flight with my right hand to shoot, my left as a guide on a hot streak completing Around The World.

I felt I was walking on the moon or walking on the sun wishing for him to be the light to guide me since still my crossover unable to fake out the demons lurking (confided my secrets with Hoop) I jinxed myself.

Asked the question, he replied:

“Never heard of it.”

Then started staring at my basketball once bright color like the setting sun fading away like my spirit now the grip worn down no longer can grasp without slipping out of my hands, therefore this is not always—the teaching of impermanence.

He whose name started with H or J depending on who was addressing him.

Gave me a choice, invited me to his secret garden poured soda in a glass with perhaps less soda than ice.

Once they told me smash ice cubes or hold on to them.

I knew this would melt, becoming water slipping through the spaces between my fingers. Pondering the problems of the world with a grin with a stranger. I called him a week later, and he could no longer remember my name.

 


 

Sophia Falco’s third poetry book has been published by UnCollected Press titled: Chronicles of Cosmic Chaos: In The Fourth Dimension (December, 2022). In addition, she is the author of: Farewell Clay Dove (UnCollected Press, 2021), & of her award-winning chapbook The Immortal Sunflower (UnCollected Press, 2019). Her fourth book is forthcoming. She is a proud part of the LGBTQIA+ community & will continue to stand for them through her poetry. She is the winner of the Mirabai Prize for Poetry, nominated for a Pushcart Prize & has over 40 individual poems published in various literary journals & magazines. Now Falco is in a highly regarded Master of Fine Arts Program (MFA) specifically for poetry & carrying out her teaching fellowship. She has been a dedicated volunteer blogger for The International Bipolar Foundation (IBPF) since April of 2020. Sophia Falco is a faithful poet since she finds poetry essential to her understanding of the universe.