A Very Sick Man

Unloading him from the car
Seemed like a hassle.
Straps had to adjusted, and
Buckles locked and checked,
Before they could press the
Red button that lowered him
Three feet to the ground.

After that little victory
Was won, his carers
Started to pile blankets
On him, tucking them in,
And smoothing them out.
He extracted his right arm
From the swaddling and
Let it it rest in his lap.
One of the carers
Noticed and tried to
To manoeuvre his
Rebel arm back into
The blanket cocoon, but
The man turned his head
Up towards the carer and,
Spoke polite and carefully
Chosen words of defiance.
He secured the emancipation
Of his arm; it waved away
Further blanket alterations.

He had no particular age,
His adventures and defeats,
And his whole life were now
Obscured by blankets and
The ravages of disease.
He had too little skin
To cover his bones; it was
Stretched so thin that at any
Moment it might tear, leaving
A jingle-jangly skeleton.

One of the carers rolled him
Away, down the concrete ramp,
Onto the beach whilst the other
Locked up the car.
As she made to follow on,
She was intercepted by
Two elderly ladies of a
Garden variety type;
There were things they
Needed to know.
She explained that
The man wished to see one
Final sunset, and if it was
Not tonight, it would not
Be in this world.

On many nights of the year
This was a fine place
To watch the setting sun;
But with a bank of heavy
Clouds sat on the horizon,
There was no place for
The sun be revealed.

Confined to his wheelchair,
Confined to the wreck of
His body, the man looked out
Over the sea; the sky was
Darkening, but not dark.
The cold was gathering and
His carers stamped their feet.
Then they checked the time
And found that, for him at least,
There was none left.

Who could know if he was
Sitting in faith or despair; but
At the last moment,
Of the last day,
There was a crack;
It was not very much,
But there was a crack,
And there was a red sun
That fell away completely
In less than a minute, but
He was able to watch
It fall.

After five minutes or so
They started to wheel him
Back across the sand.
As they did, he tucked his
Rebel arm underneath
The blankets.

It may simply have been
That he was cold,
But it looked a little
Like giving up.

Sometimes you have to.