Poem on retrogenesis

Retrogenesis is the process of people with Alzheimer’s/dementia reverting back to childhood stages..as dementia progresses and more brain cells are ruined, the earlier the stages…I wrote what’s below in 2008. Just stumbled across it again. I’m not a poet, I realize it’s not a masterpiece, but I like some of the concepts…body flowing forward, mind flowing backward. And tabula rasa, at beginning and end. Okay, not exactly, but you get the general idea. 🙂  Maybe it will give you something to think about.
Retrogenesis

When you look at me
What do you see?
An old woman
Or a young lady?

I am both.
My body flows forward
My mind flows backward.

I feel young
Others say I’m old.
That old lady in the mirror strains to see
But that is not me.

I don’t understand why my body fails
When my mind tells me I am so able.
The walker in my hands cannot be mine
I walk with a youthful upright stride.

My mind crackles with static;
time becomes dynamic.

One minute here, one minute there.

I am falling through time
One year two year three year four.
Thirty years forty years fifty years and more.

Now I’m back in childhood, happy and serene.
The years tick back to infancy
as my slate gets wiped clean.

The tabula rasa, beginning and end.