Tuesday Night--Youth Open Bouting

Ousting butts from comfy benches

Into uniform

Interrupting chat and chase to

Herd them to the strip

Breaking up covalent clumps to

Pair them two by two

(And separated far enough to fence)

Combatting innate tendency for

Every touch to devolve to debate

Turning back to find the game’s no longer

Glove on glove, but hit and run

Noticing who’s snubbed and left to

Linger at the fringe

Threatening to cycle in if they don’t

Buckle down and try

Making good the threat and romping gently,

Teasing with a gentle blade presented and withdrawn

Finally, as night winds down,

Gathering up the random bits and bobs left

Scattered when they’re gone

Good Luck

Find a penny 
In the venue 
Tuck it in my shoe 

Choose a t-shirt 
Drenched with victory 
In its sweated history 

Blades heaped by the strip 
Contemplating which one to adopt 
Pick the one on top 

Silly that I think 
Beating my opponent to the center to test weight 
Can influence my fate 

I challenge you to share 
Surely you have a ritual…or three 
These superstitions aren’t unique to me!

Amplitude

Peacock struts upon the strip

Pectorals spread wide

Magnificent in self-possession

It isn’t even ego, its just

Innate confidence

Transcendent poise

Peacock’s truly puzzled if he

Doesn’t draw all

Eyes to his display

The stomp and bother

Shaking of the blade, the

Thrum of concentration

But he’ll fence, regardless of regard

Intimidating with his dance

His aureate display

In myth, his species bears the gods to battle

Immune to cobra’s venom, inured to viper’s bite

Gaudy plumage doesn’t mean he cannot fight

Illustration

With thanks to Richard Thompson for capturing my mood and puncturing my pretensions at the same time:

(While this immensely talented cartoonist has stopped drawing this strip, as he copes with Parkinson's disease, you can catch up with the archive at GoComics. Highly recommend.)