Frank Praeger- A Poem

Off-centered

Their braids, their cuffs;
cross-eyed,
bandy legged,
insistent
cries 
marginalized.
Icy marble stoops
like so much else
out of context.
Restless legs twitching,
night a loss, a bracketed gap,
a thrumming, a twang, 
a pottable plant hung
far from any long held blame;
to get on home
ignoring dust or guilt.
Some say badgered;
crepe-soled, crept
where walk once did.
Tripped up, spent,
a lessened me
no tale can scotch,
past glory, the slightest shocked.
What can comparisons tell - 
grasshoppers hopping, 
trees, too, shaken?
Scrambing in the offing.
No plant need not be broken.
Not to be caught
off-center, the unnatural balked.