The Box
I'm in the box
Again
I'm trying not to say
Like always
But I can't remember the last time that I was not
It's been so long
I wonder if I imagined it
(Was there really a time
when I felt grass under my feet
or did I imagine it)
Is grass something that I read about
That's a clue for me
The colour
If I remember a thing
It's usually colour
I remember the colour of warmth under my feet
And the somehow dampness
And the light
...
The box is not as dark as you might think
The Handicapper
My father was a gambling man
Filled with the wisdom of the track
Mottos of a practical nature
Never gamble more
Than you can afford to lose
He said with no trace of irony
As he spent his three score
and ten
Among the company of smokey men
My father was a sometime cautious man
Metering out advice like a reluctant tipster
If you're at the table
And you don't know who the sucker is
It's you
He said
As we shared a quiet meal
Just he and I
My father was a calculating man
Who read the form and knew the odds
And at the track he said
He won more than he lost
But at what cost
Never gamble more
Than you can afford to lose
He said with no trace of irony
As he spent his three score
and ten
Among the company of smokey men
Socrates' Golf Handicap
I had a dream that I sent a message from my future self
To my present self
And I thought
How would I know if I was in the right place and time
To pick it up
My future self would know
Because at one time, it would have found it
And suddenly, it came to me
Now
Now would be a good time
Then I thought
What if the message was too specific
Like
"Don't by a parakeet on February 17th"
That would be no good
Because if I avoided the parakeet
Then the future would be different
And my future self wouldn't have to go to the trouble of warning me about the parakeet
and thus the message would be rendered meaningless
So what message could I send
That was specific enough to be helpful
But not so specific that it sets up
The parakeet paradox
And the answer is
Golf advice
The fact that I don't play golf
Means that my future self can safely
Give me advice or information pertaining to golf
And I will automatically understand
that this is a metaphor
And not an instruction
"Drive for show: Putt for dough" is a well-worn trope
And knowing this
My future self asks
the Socratic
Why not use your putter
as a driver?
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