James K Zimmerman

Dementia

PUBLISHED IN FOLIO 2026: VOL. 41.

when waters
overflow
surface light
refracts
my voice

your face
less lined
with worry
than fathomless
confusion

when memory is
imprisoned
in fragmented
thought

the dam
condemns you
to life beneath
the waves

𐫱𐫱𐫱

A frequent Pushcart Prize nominee, James K. Zimmerman's work appears in Atlanta Review, Lumina, Pleiades, Rattle, Reed, Salmagundi, the minnesota review, and elsewhere. His poetry is also featured on websites such as The Poetry Foundation and American Life in Poetry. Author of five books – most recently “The Further Adventures of Zen Patriarch Dōgen,” “Uncertainty,” and “Unbroken Circle, Unending Thread,” he values his neurodivergence as an essential wellspring of his creative inspiration.