Bubbles

Bubbles popping all about a child’s face

Bring the sounds of joy to any place.

Bubbles in champaign mean celebration

And smiling people in party circulation.

Bubbles of fear are another consideration.

A lost mind faces an unenviable situation.

How horrid to be trapped with little fears

Exploding all around you, bringing tears.

Bubbles of fear pop, and your life changes.

You life is measured by its own disarray.

They become uncontrolled sources of terror.

You fear the pops; all things bring horror.

Memories are memories, but are they real?

Some flashes of lucidity may seem to be.

Tales heard from a mind trapped in confusion

Come from an imagined, warped delusion.

I have seen living without any joy, any purpose

But cringing from fear’s bubbles turning loose.

To see a good heart and mind eroded by pain

Is a horrible, indescribable, tearful thing.

Each bubble of fear that pops is a source of tears.

In one I love it elicits voices only she hears.

They tell her a loved one is about to be harmed.

There is nothing there but her cries of alarm.

How does a caregiver sift fiction from obscure fact?

It may not be possible to correctly react.

Yesterday and tomorrow have co-mingled in today.

Today only exists for a few seconds anyway.

Sleep is not rest and quiet is not any real place now.

I want to help…but I have no idea how.

The suffering only ends when death joins with life.

Only then does peace enter that mind in strife.

My guilt from praying that relief comes to that soul

Is complete; only then will that mind be whole.

God forgive me for saying what is best for her soul.

Only when she is with You will her bubbles go.

Mike Mullins, 7/29/08