Scaling

Once they’re hooked

Beginners start to browse the uniforms

Coveting their own clean whites

A pristine mask

Unwrinkled glove

I also sense them

Shopping for appropriate ambitions

Trying on their goals and

Testing fit

That’s a beauty of our sport

Each of us can find a dream that’s

Comfortably beyond our normal reach

But not beyond our grasp

Some aim for the top while others

Strive with all they have to

Make a touch in every bout

Some scale the alphabet while teammates

Revel in their classless state

Youngsters spurt and test the limits of their

Ambling limbs their

Newfound strength

Veterans retrench and renegotiate the

Definition of success

Some drift away despite their magic touch, their

Grace—unfulfilled by their unearned success

Others struggle now and evermore

Addicted by the lure of what they never quite achieve

But might, the next time out

The lesson? If you find your joy in battle turning to frustration

Look within—the cure may lie in tweaking expectations

Recalibration

I can no longer keep a

Warrior’s pace

Always pushing past my limitations

Sore and tired but
Content, confident that

Pain is only strength in embryonic form

The signals have been switched the

Rules upended, now my

Lexicon is speaking ancient tongues

An ache or sore is warning that my

Shelf life is exceeded, boundaries o’er-reached

Reminder that my expiration date is, damn,

Too close

I am no longer over-engineered

But merely overwhelmed

My homework? Studying the

Tensile strength of aging tendons, pinpointing the

Threshold past which quintile muscles cannot go

Learning leisured speed and lazy durability

Recognizing that I can’t outrun the young