i am sick every day

[thosehooves]

i sound like this because my lungs are webbed with tar.
look at how dark my veins are.
on starless nights, everyone hears me wheezing
as i eat the greens off the potato plants in the village garden.

i'm so tired. i only walk like a man when i have to.
my joints creak like trees in winter. my hands turned black with frost.
i have the gait of a greyhound. my fingernails click on the sidewalk.
no candles in windows; all the streetlights smashed.

i'm only out tonight,
because the moon is behind the clouds.
hear the clatter of my hooves across the floorboards of your porch.
i hope you left something out for me.