Jake's Flea Market

on the warm days of summers past
and on the warm days in the hope 
for many summers to come

my crutch is left
in my chamber and i stroll
almost old to market 
square to buy a pound of wheat

now on this cold and winter day   i age

my bones ache and the meetings of my bones pain

i lean on the aide of my walking stick to my offices

while you walk to the market for me
another slips and falls on the frost

he grows too suddenly
too old before he’s found embedded in a snowbank

feebled he’s carried
home and layed out in his infirmity

let the murderer come with his vial
before the invalid’s servant comes
and with one arm under the 
shoulder of the fleshed 
skeleton of decline
and with the other arm under the failure
of an old man’s knees   lifts
and arranges the frail in an arrangement of straw

in a wheelbarrow
wheels him out into the patio shade

suffering would want the murderer to pour the poison

were i he   i would too