Fighting Against The Odds Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Fighting Against The Odds



Letter by letter, always starting from the left
and word by word, I'm only on page 2 after 4
days of hard work, yet my resolve to carry on
does not waver, determination to keep going
is growing stronger, I'm learning all the time -

Though my brain is heavy and slow, though the
fear there are Black Holes in my mind in which
information disappears and I never find certain
things again - I'm mountaineering, scaling this
Arabic mountain one step at a time, working

Through lunch, listening to music when noise
in the office interferes with images created by
the languid Arabic letters creating feelings by
which I recognise some and deduce others -
dreaming of conquest & victory, but for now

Working like this is terribly slow, starting from
the left when typing the Arabic word while my
single-minded computer changes word order
and I have to type one word at a time on the
Arabic keyboard: first A, then L, next -

The pretty Queen with 2 crowns on her head,
then Weemoed, A again, Nina, next my angry
eyes Y, and last Nina repeats again, which is
القوانين = "laws"

Next word: A then L, M, T, Bell, Queen, at the
very end Hartseer - fighting against the odds
by numbering every line and every word, thus
this is page 2, line 18, word 6:

المطبقة…. = "applicable"

At this rate I shall be busy till kingdom come -
it's great as clever scientists said thinking &
walking every day keeps Alzheimer's at bay-
given the Black Holes in my mind I have no
room for any more problems…

Monday, February 16, 2015
Topic(s) of this poem: determination
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Kim Barney 16 February 2015

Awesome. Alzheimer's disease can be devastating. The more you fight and stimulate the mind, the longer you can put off the effects. Keep on fighting. Keep on writing!

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Frank James Ryan Jr...fjr 16 February 2015

A most impressive composition, young lady...For a moment I thought I was back in A.P. Calculus! Virtually flawless stanzaic construction...One of the best works I've read this past week...~FjR~

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