The doctors say to look out for the day
You will no longer be yourself.
I am to report it immediately
To see what can be done to negotiate
The terrible inevitable.

The doctors say you need a champion
One day, you may no longer advocate for you.
I am to wait and see, keep tight watch
So that the beginning of the end can be caught
Before you are no longer yourself.

The doctors say I may feel the urge to leave
and should help put a plan in place

But we are already us.
We have never been yourself.

Today, you are a dancer.
I am your support socks, hiding on the shelf.
I have memorized the shape of you.

If tomorrow, you are a bear
Then I am a mosquito, tucked beneath your fur.
I will raise a bump to the memory of you.