HIP

Spring fools the rushes
in slow deliberate thrusts
of bird through stone:

a single crane and
a thousand paper pebbles
casting off wearisome battles
for the snow.

While marbled tigers net
bull profits and bare markets,
NASDAQ's photosynthetic finish
and blood-green veneer slides

into the roots and garlands
of an old woman's rosary
hiked thin up her thigh,
exhausting arthritic teeth.

Molars bend in the wind,
incisors break, pollinating
the subtle real estate of age
and need, bone-brittle reeds of poverty.