Recovery

Water, salted nuts
Ice, bananas, gentle stretch
Heat, sleep, patience, time

Preparation

A mask, two cords, two 
working blades. What more do I 
need? Oh! Chocolate.

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

Vipassana (Clear Seeing)

Transitory flash
Of insight, precognition
I see your intent

***

Foot kicks forward hard
Arm hitches back, presenting
Opportunity

Into this small gap
I lunge with alacrity
Squirm, and close the line

***

Teasing you to strike
Too close for you, perfect for
Stubby badger paws

Baiting with my lunge
Drawing parry four, riposte
Hah!
My second intent…

***

Rare and precious bout—
Next time will be different
Good in its own way

But not the same…

Kaizen (改 善—Small Improvements)

Little steps, balanced forth
And back, keeping options open
Ready to explode

Feint and run away
Teasing you to push and charge
Hah! Counterattack

You can push, and push
Good! I pull distance, beat, deceive
Parry and riposte

You make touch against
Now I know what you will do
Here—try it again…

Incremental change
Subtle transformation, not
Metamorphosis

I can live with that--
Each instar a bit improved
It will be enough

Stalling for Time (A Veteran's Wiles)

Excuse me sir, my
Shoe has come untied, may I
Kneel, and bind it up?

Hair! Hair in the face
Hair in the mouth (ptooie)
Thanks, it’s better now

Halt halt halt! Pardon…
The stupid grip is loose, you see?
(Fumble for the wrench)

Damn you’re full of pep
Pesky teenage energy
Hah—point in line! (Wheeze)

Sleeping/Waking

Surfacing from crevassed dreams, I snap awake
To crisp air, chilled feet,
A scrolling list of obligations patterning the surface of my mind
Stones upon the clear streambed, mirrored in its flow
My thoughts gather, tumble and propel me up and over
Swing my feet to meet the floor—they sink beneath the boards,
I lurch, flail, fall and
Slam! Snap awake
To crisp air, chilled feet

I recognize my last awakening a dream
An utterly convincing fake, a mocked up world
That I, with absolute conviction, took for real
But now I am awake,
I think…
_______________________
Codicil

Stars wheel overhead
Briefly, life makes sense. Dawn comes
Insight slips away

Zen Negotiation

Just promise me, if
I give up all ambition
I will be perfect

A Catalog of Sins (Western Canon)

Anger
My toenail,
Blackened when I kicked the floor
Seven weeks ago,
Drops off

Pride
I cannot have lost
You are not even rated…
I have earned my ‘C’!

Greed
A tangled pile
Of gold, bronze, silver, ribbons…
I try not to look

Envy
You fence so well against
The one who conquered me!
Outside, I cheer. Inside, I burn.

Lust
As the night winds down
All the lovely torsos bared
Uniforms are shed

Sloth
Easy touches are
Like icing in the bowl. Must
I eat my veggies?

Gluttony
It was too much fun!
I fenced late into the night
Now my foot rebels

Morning After

Bag of dirty clothes
A medal in my pocket
Warmth of parting hugs