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"His arms, his skin, shrink daily."
I think the author uses this to shows how much the man in the poem

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"As dull, as brutal
As the emptiness around him"

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Bad experiences result in bad behavior and bad things in life

"He tried the sweet, the gentle... and it was awful."

"He doesn't want compromise, nor to be ever nice to anyone.

This is the them because the man had bad experiences before, and he is forever changed.

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He wants to be

a brutal old man,

an aggressive old man,

as dull, as brutal

as the emptiness around him,

He doesn’t want compromise,

nor to be ever nice

to anyone. Just mean,

and final in his brutal,

his total, rejection of it all.

He tried the sweet,

the gentle, the “oh,

let’s hold hands together”

and it was awful,

dull, brutally inconsequential.

Now he’ll stand on

his own dwindling legs.

His arms, his skin,

shrink daily. And

he loves, but hates equally.