In the Alzheimer's Unit.

IN THE ALZHEIMER'S UNIT

   A tiny woman in a blue track-suit--
   corn-flower blue, the color of her eyes--
   mistook me for her father, I suppose,
   and said, "Can I go swimming?"

   "Of course", I said.
   "Up to my knees?" she asked
   and we were back
   in nineteen twenty something
   beside a lake (Wisconsin? Michigan?)--
   pine trees, high clouds, warm sun,
   women in cotton dresses
   busy with food, their men
   with sleeves rolled up
   chaffing and smoking in the shade.
   A tiny blue-eyed girl

   emerged from brightness, asked,
   "Can I go. swimming?"
   "Sure, sweetheart," one man said.
   Her long gone dad's nearby.
   Her mind is like the surface of that lake.