Old and Tired

He was articulate in the way
that one is articulate when they are old and tired.
Uh’s and Um’s were abundant in his speech
but was hard to notice when followed by clever,
dated words that his mind-archives had acquired
and stored throughout almost seven decades of life

The words could barely escape
 the bearded jowls of the old man, but
when they did, a deep and gentle sound
conscripted a voice - a voice too,
just as old and tired

Mustering, from somewhere deep,
the howls of the earth and superhuman strength,
he was so able to remove himself
from his cord-stitched recliner and
onto his nonexistent legs attached, at the bottom,
to shrunken and sore feet
tucked inside a pair of purple slippers
that he had used each day
since ten, or so, christmases prior- they too,
seeming just as old and tired