Withered on the VineBlinding sunlight hidden by cloud-capped tempests. A slender sapling prematurely gnarled by drought. A smooth young melon rotted from within…withered on the vine. You’ve seen them all? Of course, you have.
A bright future never realized. A quick, mischievous mind laid waste. Wiry swimmer’s muscles emaciated and atrophied. Tanned, silken flesh suppurating and splotchy. An indomitable spirit piteously eroded. You’ve seen them all? Then you must have known my beautiful Tony, felled by the poison whose name is whispered in fearful awe.
He was as incandescent as that golden sunbeam, as tenacious as the maturing oak, as sound as a prospering gourd. Joyful, flirtatious, puckish, engorged on sweet temper, sated by gentle good will, he shambled through life, handsome and desir
