Category: Rituals

They were slick
Cirque du Soleil trained
three,
a pixyish femme
and two men
juggling pins
five between two
the third coming from behind
and taking over – with no loss of precision –
fluid

Many other slick tricks
finishing with her escaping from a giant plastic ball
wriggling out of an aperture
and most of her clothes.
Thunderous applause
deserved
they were good – very good.
Cut to the MC
“ now I know what you’re thinking ”
pointing to the three
and then to her
“ is she doing it with him
or him
or maybe both.” It was exactly what we were thinking.

In another life,
the foreman had been a plumber.
He didn’t say much to those outside his circle,
but did say when I asked
“ because working in a factory is better,
better than crawling under fucken houses.”
Got it.

Actually, he never swore much,
a large man, he used physical presence
and police dog stare –
to do what others might have done with temper,
or violence of language.
And unlike many, didn’t seem to mind student vacation workers.

Gruff, but incisive, in the first week : close monitoring
“ nope – not tight enough – about six turns ”
or
“ yup – that’s what I want.”

Then nothing …. no comment = okay work.
Until,
one afternoon
loud enough to be heard over –
“ good, that’s more like it … I’d better check this one too ”
then … as quiet as a knife … as quick as blood springing –
If you’re asked, you saw Peter at work last Friday …
still a plumber –
plugging leaks – I wouldn’t have dared.

There were no match officials
or uniforms.
No prepared surface or ground staff
no teammates or substitutions,
no time out, no quarters or halves, or change of innings.
No expensive equipment or sponsor’s logo,
no experts or media, but
video analysis by iPhone
uploaded to forever.

Toy Warehouse bat and ball
suburban park
urban buffer 101 landscape
bounding dog of no pedigree
father, 
son,
mother
and backpack brother or sister.