Ode to James Parkinson

To Dr.Parkinson who described the disease which has changed my life, for good and bad.

How do you break the chains of apathy
that great un-caring that's taken hold of me?
Unemotional, feeling lifeless and flat
appearing unthinking, unseeing of all that.

Un-caring is not the right word,
for I deeply care, as a robin for her baby bird.
My feelings run deep into my core
for you, for life, forever more.

I've never been overly emotional without,
raised as a stoic, sturdy and stout.
But I have changed, as I guess I always will.
I will always be with you, forever still.

Some old motivator is missing, it's true,
I'm slow to move, to smile, and sometimes blue.
Newton was right about inertia, you see
the first law of motion applies more and more to me.

A body at rest tends there to remain.
Overcoming inertia, is somedays my biggest pain.
Starting a task is the hardest part
and at times I wonder if I have the heart.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
like machinery not moving, turning to rust.
The mind is willing, the body weak.
Of these things, I can barely speak.