He is just a man,
one lonely figure
left to sit here
and waste away
in the nursing home.

A man
with a withered hand
aching with
a newly acquired
arthritic fire
he desired
to be rid of,

wrinkled flesh
worn thin
and browning
with age spots.

Severe stares
of certain despair
live here
and are set to the tune of
a decade of love
and almost a century
of compounding
losses.

Each day he loses
the outer edges
of consciousness,
all willful fire
slowly simmering to
a soft boil,
then to a less urgent heat.
Until, he finds his feet
numb with diabetes,
then gone as he becomes
an amputee.

Forgotten father figure
fallen to the ravages
of a time war
no one has ever won.