Acrobat

Acrobat

He is a tight-rope
walker, who works
witout a net,
one foot slowly
then the other
careful as death
since a fall could
break a bone

Some school kids
go tripping by
with the free and easy
gait of youth.
But he lacks their
pliable young bones
and the pains that
wrack his hips and
back keep his
attention honed

And so he takes
it slowly as he walks
- an aging acrobat
with bones of chalk