The nobility was sucked

out of him by the mosquitoes

that swarmed the pigsty

where he slept

his edge refined was blunted

by constant chopping

at the bones of waste

he once threw beneath the table

his goodness, first stained scarlet

by the dawn of pleasure

he awoke to, faded quickly

in the inclemency

his endless afternoons traversed

all this to say that he utterly lacked

every decent motive to go back;

indeed, his return was blocked

by mountainous shame,

craterous indignity,

and raw disuse

of limbs now lean through

equal parts atrophy and apathy

but one foul day none of this mattered,

none of it convinced;

and the prodigal,

naked in need

bereft of elevation,

began a homeward crawl

in the clear direction

of an unforeseeable embrace.