Poetry Friday Word for Tomorrow, plus some Jam, and a flute, but not at Band Camp

Boy-child inadvertently offered up the Poetry Friday Word for tomorrow. He had a bad night at taekwondo last night…when it came time to get the pads and guards and helmet on, Boy-child was nowhere to be found. Even after everyone else had been paired up and the sparring began.

I found him in a corner, behind the door, in the men’s dressing room. Hiding. And crying. “Mom, I’ll do ANYTHING to not spar today.”

We talked. What was the matter? He wouldn’t say. We got him dressed. Finally. He did go out. He did spar. But he was clearly upset by something. After class we spoke briefly to the Master and to his wife, for all of two minutes, before the next class began. The Master phoned me later and we spoke…and the Master said he had been so impressed with Boy-child’s sparring that he started slowly pairing Boy-child up with bigger and more aggressive boys. Which I hadn’t noticed. And which had the effect of scaring the pee right out of Boy-child.

The Master promised to pair Boy-child up with same-size, same-strength boys for a while, and gradually work Boy-child back up to the tougher kids. When I broke the news to Boy-child, he seemed pleased. Relieved. We stressed what the Master had said…he was so good, the Master felt he was ready. “I’m really that good?”, Boy-child asked me for the ump-teenth time when I tucked him in. “Yes, you really are,” I said, and rubbed his shaggy head. He lay there in the dark, processing that idea, that he was good at something that scared him so bad. I swear I could smell the fear exiting his body.

The Poetry Friday Word for tomorrow is HIDE. Now, there are several meanings to this word…to remove oneself, the skin of an animal, a unit of 120 acres (according to Merriam-Webster online…who knew?). Feel free to use it in your blog post tomorrow, in whatever fashion bunches your panties…poem, story, photo, audio post, plan for world domination, plan for whirled dominatrix….


Some of you know I have a geek-crush on Wil Wheaton. It’s been a few days since I checked his blog, but I found this there today. I’m all of sucked in.


Oh, and I will give many thanks and a Special Fantastic Prize to the blogger who can find me a CD of The Jam “Snap!” (NOT "Compact Snap") that costs less than $25. It’s a killer album. And I can’t find my copy in cassette. YES. Cassette. Talk about a dead format…well, not like 8-tracks, but y'know....