CONSTITUTIONAL

The morning sky

resembles our faded

tablecloth, azure once,

its linen long

paled with age,

use, and cleaning.

Walking, my arthritic

tendon aches, torn

and mended years

ago, though soon

its pain dissipates.

She detested exercise.

Among my daily

excursions only this

still feels routine,

making my way

along the outskirts

of a park

close to home,

alive beneath that

steadily renewing blue.

Peter Vertacnik's poems and translations have appeared previously (or are forthcoming) in Alabama Literary Review, The American Journal of Poetry, Green Briar Review, The Hopkins Review, Literary Matters, Poet Lore, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and Water~Stone Review, among others.