Size / / /
Twenty rotations
of this dusty planet—
no one's coming back
to this barren place.
A fixture on the corner
of an abandoned spaceport,
he has a hole in the left knee
of weatherproof pants.
Manet's ragpicker
embodied in shadowed eyes,
a walking stick in hand,
trash by his foot.
His overgrown beard
hides life sorrows
in the way of vagabonds
from inhabited spheres.
A dying world's value
borne in a shoulder sack
with no one else available
to shoulder the load.
Inspired by The Ragpicker by Edouard Manet, oil on canvas 1865, displayed in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California