The Effect of Concussion on the Aging Brain

When I was first lost, Hippocrates appeared,
with maps of the canyons and the masses between,
like a ball of grey worms and black snakes,
or an old dried cheese, dropped, and fractured like spidering glass,
saying, “Here is the chasm where the words swung across on vines,
shredded now, on their way toward dazzling speech.
Now they must go a longer way round. Many will not make it,
and those that do come will come straggling.
What once came in floods will trickle in. You will wait in vain for the old fluency.

Here is the blockhouse of your organization,
that let you do two things at once better than most could do one;
the wires running out from it are broken at random, victims of torque.
Nothing now goes in a straight line for long.

Here is where the seminal promontory,
from which you could see everything from nine different perspectives,
collapsed into the canyon, taking the ability to make startling interconnections,
the root of all creativity, with it.  The broken wires dangle down the canyon wall.
Only an act of will now can stop you thinking like a bureaucrat.

Here are the outages in your sense of mission, where the great conduits broke
and your ability to focus ran out into the gorge. Smaller more circuitous routes
are being established. It will take time, and more energy than before.
As you can see, scattered everywhere, obstacles abound,
trees are down, roads blocked, highways dead-ended, old landmarks erased.
No matter what path you take, everything will take longer now.
Everything will be harder. Travel is difficult but not impossible.
Whatever route you take, you will never get all the way back.”

When I was first lost, I thought I was in a park.
When I looked at his maps, I saw that the park was in a wood,
with unused paths, and new ones needing to be cut.
When I started to cut them, I found that the woods was in a forest,
full of old growth and plenty of space between the trees, but no paths.
Until one day I came to a rise and I saw that the forest
was in a wilderness and the wilderness went on and on and on
in every direction.
©WILLIAM JOHN WATKINS