FOR WALTER: IN MEMORIAM


once he was his mother’s angel child
who sang songs he heard on the radio,
he loved to look at magazines,
finger the pages one by one,
he giggled when his brother
suggested punching Santa in the nose

perhaps no one will ever know
how or why his brain stopped growing,
or when epilepsy developed
along with super strength
that made him hard to handle

medical solution – institutionalization,
at age eight enemy meningitis struck,
destroyed his ability to walk and talk

for over fifty-five years,
he was imprisoned
in a wheelchair,
in a silent world

he responded
to pictures, to nature,
to having someone read aloud

he communicated only
with a smile so 
like his mother’s

his spirit reached out,
like the beauty of the rainbow,
like a shining star,
to touch others’ souls

his purpose in life
has been to inspire
love

c2010 Glenda Walker-Hobbs


                   
 
This poem may be not reproduced without written permission from the author.

 
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