Endurance Trials

 

His is a brooding countenance

his face dark not of pigmentation

but observation of the world around

him the world he inhabits the world

he cannot control. Search his eyes

and you find a world of pain and

suffering. He is not old, a somewhat

tall and angular form, muscled and

tense, a former member of a police

squad responsive to violent crime. Now

nature does violence to this former

athlete and marathon competitor, a man

accustomed to testing his taut body

in endurance trials time over time.

An introspective introvert he shuns

the presence of others exception made

for his trio of dogs. Suddenly that dog

closest to his heart as energetic as he

seized, collapsed and died. He and the

remaining two are in mourning. His

world once again testing him. His own

neurological problems resurfaced nausea 

and vertigo telling him the hydrocephalus 

shunt malfunctioning requires surgery 

unexpectedly soon after his spine did.