Episode 1: A husband's powerful account of liberating his wife from a failing nursing home system —
the real human story that inspired Nursing Home Rhymes: A digital act of love, resistance, and truth-telling
Nursing Home Rhymes: Dante-Inspired Cantos
Canto I (Purgatorio)
Saint Etna
Gram taught 'tis bitter da cucumba.
Tole Jamaican lore to little Linda.
Cut her, rub round, foamy foam, milky milk.
Now you left just da taste of silky silk!
=========================================
The girls so naughty hidden under the bed,
Fingers sticky with forbidden rum cake
When Edna caught, they feared themselves dead.
When dragged out, they shook like an earthquake
Gram volcanically yells "Reprobates!"
Wait only for Christmas this cake I make.
For kitchen punishment, patties on plates
And Scotch Bonnets burning eyes to weep,
The oven's hot, but the fire soon abates.
Canto II (Purgatorio)
Iambic Love
I shall rescue you, for love never fails,
Sunk below the tides no hapless sails,
All so stormy: save our love evermore,
The seas come and go; but us shipwrecked more,
Out here we're both adrift, seeking sea blues,
No prison--but thrown away like wet shoes,
You're strictly told our love is to be nevermore.
They say a lie echoed so breaks up any shore.
Canto XVI (Purgatorio)
Gen Mix
So tanned, Coppertone girl's giant billboard,
greets Miami drivers on One Sixty Third.
Cries from a hospital nearby are heard.
Mid-summer: Nineteen Fifty Eight boils ya
in a soup mix kind and cruel-- absurda.
New child S.O.S. or Alleluia?
Linda shouts out Hey World--I hear ya!
Canto VI (Inferno)
Prefers Cats
A clickity clack, the clickity, clacks
Linda's skateboard soars down the sidewalk cracks.
And burst out in pursuit a sudden hound
the feral beast Achilles tendon bound.
The girl tumbles, spills onto sodden concrete,
Yes, she bleeds and cries, never in defeat.
The wound will heal; the scar it lasts
So, now you know why--she prefers cats!
Canto VIII (Inferno)
ICARU-SAT-THEE
She danced on the bar; the music so high,
Her top so casually tossed toward the sky.
Cheers abound sassy Linda at Arties
Where round regulars endless party parties.
Down from Prom perch ethereal dancer come,
For her pristine liver is almost done.
Canto V (Paradisio)
SOS
(... - - - . . .)
God is a soft whisper--not even a shout,
Linda's locked bars, twenty four months, wants out.
But this time is spent for what she didn't do,
Most of all being to her own self untrue.
When the light is just right and the peace descends,
She prays tO her God, a husband to Send.
(... - - - . . .)
Canto XXXI (Purgatorio)
FORGET-ME-KNOT
Oh, I've forgotten the size of your ring,
I've forgot bride's wedding dress to bring.
I've not forgotten I just haven't called:
Just remembered, Oh, that is not allowed.
Maybe a visit, no, can't do that part,
Certain that would topple the nurse home cart.
I've just forgotten you're not allowed hosts,
No guests in a nursing home full of ghosts.
Even though its got to be lonely there,
Forgot, not COVID, unfairness to bear.
Almost forgot, tongue's tip, seems a crime,
Can't forget to wed thee at altar on time.
Now, I've forgotten you're--not allowed out.
No Church, no phone, no matter howl or shout.
I pray you've not forgot your banned groom,
For I'll remember you, in death or doom.
CANTO IX/XIX (Inferno/Paradisio)
What's It Gonna Be?
We rhyme sonnet seventy three to one
A Bard-sung poem court to set wife free?
For not through love but hate this war is won
As versed-ill sharks; some un-blind god decree.
This gaggle has pre-dubbed me surly putz,
A wedge, a skein, a vein: lies for display.
A claim so false say us unruly mutts,
The barking clouds--truth crack a single ray!
Hebrews pray heaven is a plural word
The bell question: Ring for life or just decay.
The sky split, danky dark, sole sound heard
Us dwell in heaven or today hell stay?
What is fate's decree, love's mere larceny
Or love unjilt mocked for eternity?
CANTO XXI (Inferno)
Truth Be Told
There must have been hurled the first word old,
Then split the word into two: so a lie was told.
How many lies measure a lawyer's mile?
Just Pounds enough to spew a crooked smile.
And where is such a thing as justice divine,
Where counsel do whine like lawyerly swine.
Dante's rhymes of crimes unpunished while here,
To burn into the ears of lying counsel-- fear.
Is justice a pea thimble-rigged spin?
Or stop the lies just stop all the sin?
241 + Days of All Visitors and Communications Banned for my Wife, Linda!
I’m a 71-year-old professor fighting for my wife, Linda, fueled by love and righteous anger at a greedy system. Nursing Home Rhymes, launched in March 2025, blends Linda’s story with investigative journalism,
inspired by Mary Adelaide Mendelson's Tender Loving Greed,
David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd,
Ulsperger and Knottnerus's Elder Care Catastrophe: Rituals of Abuse in Nursing Homes and What You Can Do about It
and a ton of research on the Nursing Home Syndicate.
Linda and I are counting down to a February 25, 2026 showdown hearing in Douglas County, Nebraska--PR 22-1652.
WE SHALL BE REUNITED!
This process is bigger than just Linda and my struggles. Share your stories!