WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU LOOK AT ME?
The following poem was written by a woman in a geriatric ward in an English hospital. It was addressed to the people who surrounded the woman in her last days. What do you see? What do you see?
Are you thinking when you look at me —
A crabbed old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit with far away eyes,
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice — “I do wish you’d try.”/Who seems not to notice the things that you do
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe.
Who resisting or not lets you do as you will
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill.
Is that what you’re thinking, is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, you’re not looking at me.
I’ll tell you who I am as…
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