the besmeared merchant
sighs
his dilapidated stall
shivering
even from the weight of the
dust
that covers his trivial
wares
useless all but for one
piece
one timelessly treasured
vase
facelessly reminiscent,
recalling
nana’s gentle hands folding
the clay
never would he have chosen
but for the direst of needs
to place
her final work beneath the
sun
shunned by one patron after
another
a screaming child races
past
a cloud of dust clinging to
his heels
which kick at the angry
world
with zealous determination
behind the child, lost in his
clowd
an elderly woman growls, teeters
blindly rubbing her stinging
eyes
as her hip collides with
the stall
down it falls, beautiful in
despair
down it falls, crashing to
the earth
smashing a heart that had nothing
left to hope for beyond
simply this
he does not scream, does
not yell
does not tear at what
remains
of the bedraggled gray mess
strung
limply over his sweaty
crown
his jowly countenance drips
sorrow
into the dust of his
finality
his skin cracks across
brittle bones
enthroning a once proud man
as a naïve prince of fools