[Verse 1]
An elder sits beside a window, ninety-one years worn,
He crossed a frozen border in the winter he was born,
Displacement, war, and genocide embedded in the bone,
Historical trauma settled deep in those who've long come home,
Indigenous elders carry wounds that colonizers drew,
Domestic violence, childhood abuse, a hidden residue,
These cohorts held their silence through the decades, pressed it down,
Now the body keeps the ledger when the mouth makes not a sound
[Chorus]
Late-onset, reactivated, dormant flames rekindled,
Retirement strips the scaffolding, the symptom clock is shifted,
Bereavement, illness, dementia — mirrors of the past,
Institutional echoes rise and trauma holds steadfast,
Remember: PE, CPT, and EMDR,
Adapted, paced, and medically stable from afar,
Trauma-informed, survivor-centered, every aging scar,
The evidence is building and the treatment bar is par
[Verse 2]
A veteran retires Tuesday, and by Friday he's undone,
No structure left to hold the memories of what he'd done,
Late-onset stress symptomatology, the clinicians say,
Decades of suppression crumbling quietly away,
The nursing aide approaches with a washcloth and a gaze,
And suddenly the Holocaust survivor's trapped in former haze,
Personal care becomes a trigger, hands too close, too fast,
Every stranger's uniform a silhouette from the past
[Chorus]
Late-onset, reactivated, dormant flames rekindled,
Retirement strips the scaffolding, the symptom clock is shifted,
Bereavement, illness, dementia — mirrors of the past,
Institutional echoes rise and trauma holds steadfast,
Remember: PE, CPT, and EMDR,
Adapted, paced, and medically stable from afar,
Trauma-informed, survivor-centered, every aging scar,
The evidence is building and the treatment bar is par
[Bridge]
Prolonged exposure asks the elder to revisit, slowly, gently paced,
Cognitive processing challenges the frozen thoughts that shame has traced,
EMDR with shortened sessions when the stamina runs thin,
Medical stability confirmed before we let the work begin,
Refugee elders need interpreters, cultural brokers near,
Cohort-matched assumptions unpacked before each session, clear,
Avoidance looks like wisdom, hypervigilance like care,
Differential diagnosis asks us: what was living there?
[Verse 3]
Trauma-informed long-term care means asking before touching,
Explaining every procedure, every needle, every clutching,
Choice and agency restored to hands that once had none,
Consent becomes the cornerstone of everything we've done,
Train the aides, the nurses, administrators in the hall,
A survivor's past is present in the texture of each call,
Dementia peels the coping layers, raw exposure left,
And PTSD in cognitive decline requires the gentlest breath