Kelly Cherry wrote "Alzheimer's" to illustrate the horrible impact Alzheimer's disease can have on a person. In the poem, the theme is the loss of a loved one, but not in the sense of death, but the tone of this poem is grief. People with Alzheimer's disease are very ill and may lose their memory forever. Sometimes someone you love doesn't remember who you are, which is actually worse than that person dying. In this poem she talks about a man who has Alzheimer's disease and may remember where he is and what he is doing, but can't remember the next thing. most important in his life. The poem begins by describing the old man's current condition, He stands at the door, a crazy old man Returning from the hospital, his spirit shakes like a suitcase, swinging in his hand, Which contains cream shave, a piggy bank,(1 - 4)The poet chose words like "crazy old man" to describe the effects that Alzheimer's disease had on him. The old man "has a mind that trembles/like a suitcase, swinging from his hand" (2-3), meaning it's almost like a habit, he can't change the way it s has been built within him for a very long time. The old man cannot seem to control his older years as he did in his early youthful years. The old man is described doing many things in one poem, but one line that was particularly interesting was "A book he sometimes pretends to read" (5) This can mean many things but this line means that he pretends to read a book, although he has read the book countless times before but it is still new and intriguing to him because he may not remember the story or he may not remember it. don't remember how to read. The person reading realizes that the man no longer knows how to read because he is pretending with his book. There are problems around middle of paper......he has Alzheimer's, does not allow him to recognize the old woman standing in front of the door who is his own wife. The style of the poem's stanzas and the language in "Alzheimer's" is long and it has many meanings, some are easy and some are very difficult to understand. This may be due to the poet's writing style. There are many interpretations of this poem but my interpretation was displayed during this analysis. Reading a poem is personal to who you are as a person and the interpretation that comes to you. Kelly Cherry's poem Alzheimer's can be interpreted in different ways because individuals have different backgrounds, cultures, and backgrounds. Some people are more affected by this disease because some personally affected people may have a family member with this disease. They can understand what Cherry went through.