Cartilage Accommodations
  with appreciation to the Original Hobo Nickel Society

Wrapped up and carried
on a hobo-stick
it migrates
through the body’s boxcars
hopping an elbow here
an ankle there
growing a nose tip
drooping an earlobe
the stuff sticks to the ribcage
like a rum-dum decked-rattler
holding on for the ride
says HEY BO
to patella
then slides through the slats
between femur and tibia
jumps off the line
on the blind of a curve
leaving the kneecap
without even a bindle
to cushion the deck
just another road bum
in the floating fraternity