The Poetry Man

I met a charming man I’ll call Swede. He is a friendly, talkative gentleman who has dementia and needs a little extra care and supervision. One of the fascinating aspects of his dementia is the propensity to turn almost every remark into a mini poem. More accurately, he concludes his verbal meanderings with rhyming couplets typically featuring true rhyme. I spent a couple days with him recently and jotted down several of his spontaneous creations.

“Stop that lip before you trip.”
“A Swede running through the weed”
“You go or you stow.”
“Swedes – they’re pokers, not jokers.”
“Ho, ho, ho – they tell the Swedes to go go go.”
“What you don’t know, you don’t show.”
“You better shop or you’re gonna pop.”
“You no buy, you no sigh.”
“If you book here, don’t look here.”
“A rumpard Norwegian with no legion.”
“It’s ten twenty, so rest plenty.”
“You drink or you stink.”
“You know it? You show it!”
“Shut your gut. You get no mutt.”
“You cook and we’ll look.”
“If it ain’t better, you’re a wetter.”
“No feed, no seed, no weed.”
“If he doesn’t have a mate, he’ll be late bait.”
“Pretty ladies and ugly men pretty soon will get together again.”
“He fell in blue, and she got the flu.”
“A lot of us marines got caught in the ground beans.”
“You can wear without the bear.”
“I’m a Swede running through the weed.”
“I slipped the vip, but the vip wasn’t chip.”
“That cat went flat.”
“Don’t push the shoosh.”
“Mints or dints?”
“Kingo, bungo, jungo.”

“When did you start your poetry?” I inquired.

“I start tomorrow. They said I did it backwards. And I said, ‘You got it lackwards.’”

Swede is no dummy. One morning he had the misfortune of falling privy to some unflattering remarks by a caregiver about his confused peers. Assuming the discussion would fall on deaf ears, the unsuspecting caregiver was unprepared for what happened next. Swede, whose sunny countenance had clouded over by then, suddenly advocated for himself and for all those who might be stereotyped for their confusion rather than acknowledged for their humanity. And, it was charmingly appropriate that he threw in a rhyme for good measure.

“I stumble and bumble. We all get confused sometimes.” – Swede

Kareen King is a Registered Drama Therapist and founder of The Golden Experience, offering keynotes, concerts, and workshops to enrich lives in long-term care. For booking information, contact her at kking@thegoldenexperience.com or visit www.thegoldenexperience.com.