I’d like to submit an entry for the poetry category in this year’s writing contest. This poem is dedicated to all capsuleers who care(d) for a loved one dealing with a neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s.
It seems not very long ago
that your mind was safe as highsec,
the largest freighters easily hauling
memories between past and present.
At first it seemed bad luck,
sometimes memories got ganked,
a deep space transport getting caught
at some random gate.
Then one by one the systems fell,
the trusted trade routes broken,
yet with increasing effort
blockade runners still pass.
Today your mind is like a shattered wormhole,
only the smallest ships get through,
their cargo-hold barely large enough
to bring scattered shards of past
Tomorrow, the heart-shaped capsule
with no cargo but oneself
will carry love as the last thing
that can still warp from me to you.