Timing

© John H. White/commons.wikimedia.org

Timing is everything, sages say
Girls learn it as early as
double-Dutch jump rope
Your turn comes up, you wait, eyes alert
Until the precise moment
Lady Luck taps your shoulder
Now!
If you slip into the eye-blink opening
Just before the spinning ropes slap you silly
You’re halfway to heaven
Next: mind and muscles must agree to keep you flying
Once inside that secret world, fleeing is no option
You’re in the flow, nowhere to go beyond those fleet
Moments marked out by your staccato feet.
Then: pure faith is yours. Time slows.
I’m doing it, I’m doing it!
Your little inner voice rejoices
How long can it last?
You wonder, beginning the fall from grace
In a flash those slapping ropes
Are a mess of snakes grabbing your ankles
Tangling you up in ordinary time and space.
Timing is everything, sages say
Girls learn it as early as
double-Dutch jump rope
Your turn comes up, you wait, eyes alert
Until the precise moment
Lady Luck taps your shoulder
Now!
If you slip into the eye-blink opening
Just before the spinning ropes slap you silly
You’re halfway to heaven
Next: mind and muscles must agree to keep you flying
Once inside that secret world, fleeing is no option
You’re in the flow, nowhere to go beyond those fleet
Moments marked out by your staccato feet.
Then: pure faith is yours. Time slows.
I’m doing it, I’m doing it!
Your little inner voice rejoices
How long can it last?
You wonder, beginning the fall from grace
In a flash those slapping ropes
Are a mess of snakes grabbing your ankles
Tangling you up in ordinary time and space.

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