For Pam-Pa
"Unfortunately, cardio-vascular diease can produce disturbing, even tragic,
personality distortions in its final stages." -- A comment by a physician
who treated my gandfather during his last illness.
My Pam-Pa seemed
When I was three
To sing and dance
Incessantly.

Three decades later,
Somber facts:
Gramp's arteries
Filled up with wax.

His nasal tenor,
His buck and wing
Gave place to wild
Imagining.

His final months,
A tasteless joke.
The punchline was
A massive stroke.

My Pam-Pa seemed
When I was three
To sing and dance
Incessantly.

-- Warren F. O'Rourke, 1980