The Elder's Cage Poem by Katy Tuten

The pungent smell of afterlife haunts the air

The crones fill the narrow hallways with clouded eyes

Their blank expressions linger in this forbidding lair

They fade in and out of reality only to share these horrid lies

They mourn over memories their hearts still hold

These tales they share with outsiders unknown

Weathered and tormented, they continue to tread on in places untold

They sit in their rooms wainting all alone

They wither around in their own grease,

Tangled hair and wrinkled lace

Soon all the agony and suffering shall cease

New homes they shall find in that secret place

They wander on fleeing this world

Finding refuge in this new dream-world

This is about a nursing home. My grandmother died last year on January 15 so I decided to write this a couple of days after. She was 95 years old.