Life As Trial

He is resolute and determined,
wincing his way through the pain
he suffers, willing his lean, spare body
barely clothed against the winter wind,
to forge ahead, propelling himself
through the fresh-snowed woodland 
trails, refusing to submit to age and his
body's weary breakdown.  He has been
ill-served, Max has, by relentless time
and merciless nature that ages without
remorse that which was so latterly 
youthfully vibrant.  Now Max, slight
of build and health-beleaguered, must
daily wrestle his wife's inert bulk from
bedroom to bathroom with time out to
exercise his own spare frame.  His life
has not reflected the exquisite perfection
of his native country's fabled clockwork
mechanism.  Gall bladder latterly
excised so soon after heart bypass
surgery, he yet awaits joint replacement
and still gets on with the rhythm and
rhymes of a life well lived; a trial.