Wednesday, July 16, 2025

The Caregiver Daze - A Poem

When all days seem like the same day


The Caregiver Daze


A year of days,
not counted,
but totaled into one.
Not tracked on calendars.
Not memorable by name.
Just lived.
Fully.
Repeatedly.
Quietly.
Over and over again.

The same day,
where some moments might be unique,
but the rest of the time
it is exactly the same day.
Unremarkable, and unremarked.
Mirrored from yesterday.

Each day carries many stories—
some told,
most not,
some recognized,
some forgot—on purpose.
Some are etched in the pause between medications,
in the silence after the medicine cabinet clicks shut.

The only real changes to the day
are changes of clothes,
of underwear,
and of laundry accumulation.
Depend on the day,
in several different ways.

We think it is Sunday,
when it is Thursday instead.
Time blurs—
not from wear,
but from repetition.
The last cup of coffee
before we drink it again.

Still, we live it.
Quietly.
Over and over again.
Not noticing,
until we notice it.

Pills in a cup.
Shirts folded twice.
One more load of laundry.
One more walk to the garbage pail.

What remains of you
after so many mirrored days?

The breath before the next one.
The pause between the cabinet’s slow click
and the next yearning look out the window.
That long sigh, the slight slump of the head,
before you begin moving again.
You move onto tomorrow,
which is actually yesterday,
and will be again—
same time,
next year.


Copyright July 2025 M. W. Van Dyke
All Rights Reserved


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