Check List

Is my shoulder loose my

Arm relaxed my

Grip upon the blade

Correct

Is my weight on my back

Leg my shins upright my

Hind foot tucked beneath my

Bum

Are my advances small and neat with

Variable speed and random

Length, always ready to

Leap back

Is my gaze glued to your chest

My distance finely gauged my

Lunge spontaneous and

Nicely timed

Got all that?

Yup. Neatly queued and tallied on the sheet

Each square ticked off.

So fabulous, now

God dammit, throw away the list

Priorities

Contemplating what went right, or wrong 
Concentrate all the things that worked 


Choosing between mastering arms, or legs 
Focus on the feet 


Faced with thinking of the start, or end 
Rivet on beginning right


Better yet, don't think

Seven Virtues

(A companion piece to A Catalog of Sins)

Temperance

Your shoelace is untied

Preserve me from temptation...

I would love to stomp

Valor

Even though I know

You're about to kick my butt

I take up my mask

Diligence

One hundred lunges

Despite my secret doubt that

It will really help

Patience

I strip the blade the

umpteenth time, and hope that now

The wire will stay put

Humility

Why embarrassment?

Who notices when I bomb out?

No one--only me

Charity

Having made the touch

You crow and strut and posture

I hide a smile

Empathy

I've been there,

Slumming at the bottom of the pool

Trust me, it gets better