Wandering Behavior
By Ed Meek

— In the U.S. 32,000 are reported missing annually.

One day without warning they walk out,
past stop signs posted by loved ones,
through doors disguised by curtains.
They head south like migrating birds
following an inner compass, unwavering
across roads, fields, highways
 

until they become entangled in brush
or stuck in a brier patch
or frozen at a fence line in a field.
Sometimes they are found bloated
floating face down in a creek or a stream or a pond.
 

They may be trying to find a safe place to hide.
They may want to remain unfound in the woods.
Wandering behavior is as old as dementia itself
and all Alzheimer’s victims behave much like each other.
 

Old Eskimos walked out to freeze on the ice.
Old Aborigines suspended themselves in trees in the bush.
Alzheimer’s victims walk south, toward the light.

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