Memory Loss

Familiar words
morph into brown moths,
flutter away, too fleet to catch.

Words that once blazed
like neon lights
across the black sky of my brain

begin to lose letters.
I’m still alert enough
to fill in gaps,

but it takes time,
and conversation slows
while I connect the dots.

Some day, will the letters
all burn out?
My mind would be

blank as a starless sky,
as dark, as if, a giant moth
spread wings across my eyes.

Catherine McCraw