Brittle, stiff, immobile;
Worn out.
With swollen joints
and atrophied flesh
they trembled.

An orchard,
milk cows,
shovels,
soil,
daughters,
sows,
bolts,
and floods.
They had tended,
cherished,
heaved,
furrowed,
carried,
slopped,
tightened,
and prayed.
had been cut,
scraped,
smashed,
bruised,
bitten,
pinched,
burned,
punctured,
sliced.
Dirt and grease and oil
and dust and grain
in every wrinkle and under
the nails.
Peeling in the heat,
cracking in the raw chill;
they moved.
Ligaments tendons
muscles cartilage
and bone together
in tandem.

And they had persevered.
Eighty some years
of work and worry.
Toil and turbulence.
Labor, but in love.

A softer yet weathered pair intertwines;
and clasps tightly.
They tremble, and squeeze back.
Tired in finality, they relax.