Flight

[Achebe]

I saw the poem
in my head the first time
you couldn’t remember
my name, your tongue wanting
to say something, anything;
the sadness of it all floated,
catching on a bridge column,
swirling in an eddy of undertows. 

Your arms spread like sparrow wings,
and I thought this is how they might look
flying into eternity.

nice one. S1 is great, S2 a let down.

at first it looked like you were talking about a pretty girl, then it seemed more and more likely that you were talking about Alzheimer's. I hope I've got it right. there's no need to clarify anything - this is one instance of where ambiguity makes the poem better.
the image of what were possibly your memories of the afflicted person, rushing through your head in the first instant of bewilderment, like flotsam on a river, and then the underlying sadness sticking around in your head - all wonderful.

S2 is weak. not only am I irritated by the slight ambiguity of 'they' (the wings? other dying people in general?), but also unable to make any sense of that last line. It comes across as a bad attempt at philosophising.