shuffle along

a worn, old man shuffles quietly from place to place.
within his home, his house-shoes make a more pronounced
shush-shush across the carpeted floor
than the scuffed worked boots worn out in the street.
he’s a worker bee:
had his own small business
then was forced into retirement by an on-the-job fall.
he’s traded his normal walk that used the full length of his long, narrow frame
for a stooped shuffle.
during his days, in between cowboy movies,
he lets the TV watch him,
while a blaring radio is both sides of his conversation.
he gives himself busy work in the garage with long since rusted tools.
he makes a sixty-second walk up a 14-step staircase three times a day
to satisfy his gastronomical needs,
then another sixty seconds snails pace
making a gingerly descent back down the stairs,
with a hot drink safely sealed in a travel mug.
he takes short runs the store for paper products
and boxed foods that help him in his lackadaisical fight against bad cholesterol.
he is an admonition in slow motion
against living to work.
his life the sum of his earlier choices
ending the equation with a monotonous slow shuffle until his last step.