Watching the tide go out

Watching the tide go out

 Every day, there is a bit less.
He's no longer angry, but has no sense of humor anymore, either.
No push-button issues anymore, but few memories of the past either.

Got to get some gas for my car, he says.
Daddy, you don't have a car.
Oh yes, I have a car.
Where are you going to drive your car?
He doesn't remember
Even when I mention some of his favorite trips
The drive to Paradise
Up and over the North Cascades Highway.

When I mention the drive past Crater Lake, he wakes up.
You drive up through all the trees, and then suddenly you're out of them.
Then there's ... nothing.
Nothing? There is Crater Lake! Bluest blue in the world.
No memory of that, it seems. Just driving over the treeline.

Or perhaps he means that there was once a mountain,
And it's been blown to smithereens
Leaving only a lake to fill the empty space.

2 August, 2013