Lost in the Game

(Written in 2010 but no less true today)

Like towering leaves of grass 

each experience overwhelms,

requires every moving quark, 

desires full complicity

and totally inhabits 

my most laserlike attentions. 

I am nervous to have run 

so far from my familiar,

never free to even raise 

my thumb to take my measure,

think of cats in boxes, 

or stack myself for treasure.

At my first chance I quickly try 

to sit and watch and think

to find that I just cannot do it, 

slow the red to pink.

Greet it as it comes 

and on my feet with jubilation,

time expanding with the sense 

of total saturation,

lost completely to myself 

until the game is called.

After all, this is the point. 

Play until you fall.