Lion Heart, Eleventh Hour

I

Great Uncle Pinderhughes
lay in his great
clawed-foot bathtub
trusty Rosalita
kneeling on the
freshly pressed
bath mat
by his side

Grasping his
knee's crook
she struggled mightily
to wrench it uncrooked

With a loud pop:
it's release:
endorphin shot,
starting gun

Sent him careening back
a half-century;
memories:
oak pipe
turns Lucky Strike;
Peeling scalp
sprouts lion's mane

Rosa leaned close
to clean
the ear wax
normally caked
to his ear canal

But the sandalwood
jumping from
the pulse in her neck

was just enough
to restart
Great Uncle's
sagging heart

II

Knocking her hand away
He stood
and sloughed
wrinkled skin
from his shoulders

Rosa gasped
and
it took only that instant
before
withering
he crumpled
back to dirty suds

Deep pocks
marking cheeks
that just before
had been smooth
as a swaddled babe's
ass