Into the dark My father cannot name a single animal for the memory nurse. No farm or wild animal. Not even the simplicity of dog or cat or any of the fish he used to catch. I imagine them circling the dark auditorium of his brain – sheep, lion, tiger, trout – a silent carousel refusing to yield to the roll of his tongue. Parkinson’s dementia a blackbird almost invisible in the winter's dusk First published Haibun Today Vol 13 No 1, March 2019