It crept in amongst us
diseasing hope and sanity.
Slowly taking you from us
to place of dwindling clarity.
For a while we laughed,
found a hundred ways to ease unease.
For a while it could have just been a game,
the resounding echo of a lifelong tease.
Then the echo faded and the point was lost.
The laughter melting into defensive wit
as you, stumbling backwards,
raged inconsistently into weary stillness.
Drifted sleepily into affected illness.
Came to rest at last, a slumped existence,
fingers pulling at invisible threads.
A mere shadow of yourself,
stuttering and unseeing.
Bent low into the question
none of us could answer.
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