Communication

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Our Elderly

Our elderly have been forgotten
Neglected and shoved aside
No-longer respected
Robbed of their self respect and pride

They’ve contributed to our country
Built the nation that we now live in
Yet now continually and daily
Suffer abuse over and over again

So lets pass a few places
And look in when we arrive
What we see is not pleasant
But this is the life they must now survive


She lay crumpled in the floor
Her frail body bloody and bruised
Her eyes blackened, lips swollen
Her aging mind confused

How could this have happened?
The abuse came from her own child
Flesh of her flesh
And it had been happening for awhile

He paced the floor
Knowing his life was in danger
Somehow, somewhere
His child had become a stranger

He’d done all he could
To provide when he was younger
Now he was locked in this room
His stomach rumbling from hunger

In another house, another home
A mother and father laid in bed
They’d been rewarded by their child
With a bullet in their head

Fortunately for them
Their suffering was at an end
They’d never be abused
By their child again

Now we stop at a nursing home
Its got to be better there
Whoa not so fast
Abuse happens everywhere

The aide may be overworked
Or short tempered too
Mom or Dad are neglected
Lying forgotten in some strange room

I know these are unpleasant scenarios
But the sad truth is they happen everyday
And society somehow
Just turn its head the other way

We neglect our aging
Allow them to suffer needlessly
Forgetting that some day
It could be you or me

Kathleen Ann Shelton

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