Life's essence ebbs in metered spews of frosted broken breaths; <br />He trudges up that final slope, exposed in mottled flesh. <br />All failing thew on grinding bones, this winded rusted train, <br />Masks agony in coats of hopes; his body's last betrayal. <br /> <br />Observe this aging dinosaur once coated black and thick <br />Now clouding eyes shade pristine mind dimmed by dementia's tricks. <br />Plagued by blizzards of regrets that rush on frozen northern winds <br />He prays to be forgiven for his mortal and immortal sins. <br /> <br />Scabs encrusts his feeble heart plucked beating, rent, and worn, <br />By greedy leeches eating down to thinning bone. <br />Exhaustion wraps his wasting face and stamps with gentle kiss <br />As flashes steal the feel of dreams that he will never miss. <br />Oblivious to afterlife pursued from high and low, <br />He rests, instead, his heavy head to sleep beneath the snow.<br /><br />Alto Lee Thomas, Jr.<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/seasons-winter/
