Examination

Grownups 
For the most part
don't get scored

For some that offers sweet relief
From dreams of
Missed examinations
Failing marks

Me, I miss the brutal clarity of grades
Absolute or graded on the curve

Perf reviews are squishy
Carefully opaque
Supervisors squirming to avoid the
Awkward conversation 
Armored from legal redress
Unhelpfully polite

Competition proffers  
Ruthless objectivity
No fear of inflation
No entitled culture 

I win, I lose
I'm in, I'm out
I medal
Or I don't

In the end I'm slotted in a clearly numbed rank
At most, a tie

Just for a moment
Stripping off my sweated uniform
I know exactly where
In fencing GPS
I stand

With a faithful reading of my
Position, course & speed
I can 
Plot the course corrections that I need

Performance

On stage, I

Riff, I

Jive

Trip sure-footed o’er a sketchy framework stretched above

Abyss, no net

No notes

No fear

Confident in my ability

To slip, recover

Veiling minor gaffes with
Persiflage, some

Verbal slight-of-hand

Knowing that no matter how I divigate

I’ll stick the landing

Dead on time

Why not on the strip?

It’s a kindred act—Improv drawing on a

Repertoire of skills

Compiled aptitudes

Drilled until they’re

Practically innate

I need to graft my viva-voce assurance

Onto somatic challenges

Revel in an

Unrevealed solution

Trustful of my ad-lib creativity

My zombic intuition

Then perhaps my predatory dance

Liberated from its rigid choreography

Would transmogrify into unscripted creativity 

Drawing by SillyRedPanda

Composition

A wordled mass lies

Tangled on the page

Awaiting

Order

Somewhere deep inside lie

Knotty insights

Convoluted,

Mute

Thoughts

Born in

Structured linearity

Earbud into disarray

Thus

Entropy

Asserts dominion

Over its demesne

I, in quiet

Mannerly rebellion

Coax words to higher

Orbits

Nurture their potential

Energy, their

Probal density their

Weight

As they, upon collapse

Emit a tiny light to

Quantify the

World

Illustration from Shimmerzine.com

Strong Faults

I find it ironic that

With me at five foot three
Never cracked one twenty
The skinny kid
The runt

You diagnose my greatest flaw as
Over-muscling the touch

I'm obscurely pleased to muscle anything at all

From "The Balance Of Nature And Modern Conditions Of Cultivation"
by George Abbe

Idle Purpose

I can't go long

or far

Can't launch a lunge that flings me

Half-way down the strip

Can't mount an irresistible attack

Deploy an obfuscating wall 

of blade

Impervious defense

Absent all these skills

What I have left is best described as

Loitering with intent

Puttering at danger's edge

Nosing about for openings

Ready to high tail it out but every bit as ready

To step in

True, this peripheral maneuvering lacks

Flash

Is totally deficient in

Dramatic flare

But is more suited to my repertoire 

My circumscribed, specific grace

The lesson here?

When counting blessings, always keep in mind

Every limitation can become a strength, if suitably defined

Data Set

Normally pragmatic, when

Forecasting my

Chances of success I

Diddle the analysis

Jig the numbers

Tweak the odds

In my little book are

Reams of records

Documenting just what

I can hope to do

An archive of compiled scores

Ample data here for accurate

Prevision

Instead I harbor sneaky hopes that

I might beat the house

Might deviate from

Second-class consistency

Refusing to accept that

Past is prelude

To the present

The best predictor of what happens next is

Just what happened last and

Time before and

Before that…

And that

Relentless linear projection

Squinting I can almost see the

Trend line inching

Up

Instead of level for

The longest time

With some infrequent

Spikes

Next time,

When I register my name and

Back my bag, my lunch

My blades

And set my expectations

I swear I’ll be hardheaded in my calculations

Really. Truly. Yes. 

In Shape

Big, with lumps

Small, with only minor bumps

All legs and arms… and postage stamp lamé

Bulging at the thighs, biceps, or tum

Knees turned in, or out, with feet a-splay

Rock solid abs, or squishy in the bum

Astounding range in size, & strength, agility

Anatomy does not dictate ability