Tutorial

Every time that something starts to work, you

Make it harder

Dangling an elegant new skill

Effective

Deadly

Just beyond my reach

An exercise in

Escalating scales

Seems like lessons are the process of

Sequential failure

Always seeking for the next thing

I can’t do

Plowing on past mastery to find where

I fall short

A blade-thin line divides

Complacent competence from

Terminal frustration

I realize, in my random motes of wisdom

However much I long for comfort

Kudos, praise

This is the learning zone:

The razored edge between

Discomfort and perfection

Reset

In the midst of combat

Off-balance, off-

Beat, tense, winded

Blown

I stumbled on

A reservoir of calm

Secret, hidden

Banked from aimless hours spent

A cabin by the lake

A rock, baked in the sun

A cat-warmed bed

Wasted time, it seems was

Not so wasted after all

That dousing triggered me to

Disconnect

Detach

Detox

Glory, just like that

Breath steadied, shoulder slacked

Feet fell into patterned certitude

Three touches

Bim bam boom

Go figure

How can I find that puddled quietude again?

Short of being drenched in memory

What can bring me

Back to earth?

Maybe nothing-I’d better blaze the path to my new

Swimming hole, my

Private pool of peace

The better to do battle

Photo by Dan Belton (No Badger Cull) on Flckr

Siblings

Look at you!

All squabble & bounce

Bickering spats

Whacking, cheating,

Stabbing in the back

This isn't bouting, it's attempted

Phratricide

So halt

You

However plaguy and pestiferous

Smaller sisters call for care

While you're forever bigger,

Stronger

She knows every chink in

Your defense

You

Though he's an

Ever -growing pain

A swagger and a tease,

All brash intimidation

Someday

He will have your back

Salute, and shake and reaffirm

Your congeneric coalition

Two against the world