Old men were young once, but it is uncertain if young men will reach old age.
Democratus

1.
...How he folds his hands in front of him
...Those long branch fingers
...With cracked leather tan skin, wrinkled cedar bark.
...His too skinny forearms crossed in front of his tiny chest,
...White and brown scrub hair rasping,
...Methuselah cricket arms
...You’d never know used to build houses,
...And wooden hands
...That delivered his own son.

2.
...He moves his mouth
...But talks with those hands
...And his eyes look around
...At the white hospital sheets
...And IV drip drops into his arm.
...“I’m not gonna make it out of here.” Says his mouth.
...“I don’t want to make it out of here.” Says his hands.
...“My hands don’t make shadows in this goddamn flourescent light.” Says ...his mouth.
...“Hold me.” Says his hands
...What his mouth would never say.
...Flutters of hands, cold cedar bark against my warm smooth palms.
...His mouth says “Turn these lights off, would you?”
...His hands are silent.

3.
...High up in Oso Notch
...New Mexico desert gives itself up
...Just a little
...Alligator junipers make room for pinon pines.
...Red bits of rock scatter in the dirt,
...wood when they were young,
...The sap of wisdom aged hard by pressure,
...Petrified by countless time.
...At the top of the Notch
...You can climb a long flat table of white rock
...To see the whole world drop under you
...Down the cliff
...Across the pine valleys to far and away
...Where pine turns to juniper then scrub,
...Where rock turns to blonde and red mesa.
...Wind in your ears on that table rock.
...And a golden eagle riding that wind out over the valley
...Turning, wheeling, then diving down into the trees.
...Loud silence of the wind,
...All you can do is stand on the rock,
...And wonder what happened to the eagle.

4.
...Lights out in the hospital room
...Our hands held together
...Lit by the red sun of dusk in through the window.
...My hands say to his
...“You are real because I hold you.”
...And
...“Why do you die?”
...And
...“Where were you when I needed you?”
...But my mouth says different,
...Tells about Oso Notch
...And the red rocks,
...Lies about the eagle,
...How the eagle stayed flying and turning
...Stayed golden in the perfect blue and gold afternoon.
...Looks him right in the face and lies.
...Should have let my hands do the talking.

5.
...How he turns in the bed,
...Turns to the window
...Pulls his wood hands and cricket arms back to himself
...Last bit of sun catches in his eyes.
...How he closes his eyes,
...His weight sinking into the bed.
...“I’ve been thinking…” he says
...but his words trail off, his mouth closes.
...He reaches out again, his skinny arm in the air.
...My hand finds his.
...Red hands in the last red light.
...“I forgive you.” My mouth says.
...His hand squeezes back.