3rd Person Slightly Removed

Arturo asked if we should
Take Ida to lunch.
No that’s not right. He really asked
If we should take “her” to lunch.

Ida was sitting a few feet away,
She had “pronounced signs of dementia”,
A resident of that other dimension,
Where a person becomes inanimate.

This is never the place to choose.
Better a handful of ashes,
Or an encased corpse,
That will be left sans lunch.

Do not tolerate the kindness
Or the smiles, plastered in place,
Claw your way to the surface
And growl your protest.

“I am here,
I will not stand as a sad relic
From a time that never was.”
Better a column of smoke that asks neither kindness nor
3rd Party Slightly Removed condolences.