Fridge Notes

Tiffany Roberts

At the time we chuckled
Dad’s attempt to make sense of your shaky scrawl
long yellows
brd
99
i-c
sadness in Dad’s eyes when he opened your refrigerator door
childlike disbelief in yours as you proudly pushed aside five brown bananas
      four loaves of stale bread
      cheap chips
      a carton of melted ice cream

if only you knew

The Science

One early sign of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the loss of language. This poem, with its jumbled words, missing letters, and intergenerational indentations, was inspired by the question: can frontotemporal dementia be inherited? In short, yes, there are rare hereditary forms of FTD which have been linked to abnormalities in a single gene (progranulin, tau, or C9orf72). In many instances, other neurodegenerative diseases have been identified in the families of people with FTD. It is important to note however that at present, the majority of FTD cases are deemed to be sporadic conditions.

The Poet

Tiffany Roberts is a poet, educator, and editor based in northern Ontario, Canada where she lives and works on the traditional and ancestral territories of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Nipissing First Nations. Tiffany has a PhD in Educational Sustainability, a graduate certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto, and is a member of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild. Tiffany is curious about all things brain-related and has a special interest in playing with poetic form. 

Next poem: I-We by Jeannie Marschall