{"id":10708,"date":"2026-09-20T17:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T22:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/?p=10708"},"modified":"2026-09-20T17:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T22:12:15","slug":"i-never-thought-my-brain-would-fail-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/i-never-thought-my-brain-would-fail-me\/","title":{"rendered":"I Never Thought My Brain Would Fail Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"I<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

By Bryant Burroughs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Today I saw a bird flying
high above the aisles
of a grocery store.
I felt its frantic lostness.
For a tiny bird who lives in endless sky,
its entire reality was altered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it is with me.
I never thought my brain would fail me.
My heart, yes.
Heart failure took my father and his father,
the latter at my age.
Cancer, maybe.
My prostate for years has scolded me
for drinking too many cups of coffee.
But my brain?
It\u2019s been the engine of who I am.
Bright, fast reader, big-picture thinker,
all gifts from my parents
and the Creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now my reality is shaped
by terrible words:
stroke, brain bleed, ischemia,
and the most frightening of all: dementia.
That slow chipping away of memory,
knowledge, and \u2013 please God, no! \u2013 recognition.
Lost inside a closed down brain
is a prison sentence;
but not knowing my wife is worse than death.
I pray she remembers \u2013 come what may \u2013
that I\u2019ve loved and adored her
for a lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And \u2013 dare we hope? \u2013
in the life to come.
And that I owe more to her
than I owe my brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Bryant Burroughs<\/strong> writes stories and poems as reminders of those things he hopes are real and true. He has published three poetry collections: Where Do My Words Go?<\/em>, Graced Perception<\/em> and Gladness Gleams<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Tree<\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bryant Burroughs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\nI Never Thought My Brain Would Fail Me | Faith Hope & Fiction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/i-never-thought-my-brain-would-fail-me\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Never Thought My Brain Would Fail Me | Faith Hope & Fiction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Bryant Burroughs\" \/>\n<meta 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