EDITOR’S NOTE: The author of this verse has always had a mental picture of “the grid” of the City of Chicago streets, avenues, and interstates.

The First Signs of Dementia

I cannot see myself on the grid
anymore–the web of avenues,
streets, lanes, and turnpikes. I know the road
I am driving on, but the views
from the height of buzzards are now lost
to my mind’s dim cataractic eye.

Well, at least it happens sometimes. I
hate not knowing when the very last
clear and cogent thought will cross my mind
(double-cross, most likely…) Can there be
exercises for brains? Surgery?
Memory replacement would be kind.

Will I soon not even know my name?
Hell is when all highways are the same.

(Composed while driving on I-57, Urbana to Chicago–but not transcribed while in Work Zones…}

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, October 16, on his way to McCormick Days, the annual three-day Alumni/ae event at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. Steve first mentioned losing his grip on the grid last spring on the drive from Midway Airport to the seminary for the annual gathering of old friends.