Education, by Xaden Riorson

I first encountered poetry
as a boy memorizing syllables
oration and rhythm and how
to make an audience listen
instead of just hearing.

my father was a master.
remembered for his speeches
but my favorites were told
around bonfires, his words
rising aloft on the heat
to open the storytelling contests
on the solstices, at the harvest

I paid such close attention
to all those who spun verse
I thought the trick was only
to count correctly
to enunciate clearly
find the right metaphor
and tie it together
like weaving runes in words

magic, if I just found
the right angles

I wrote poems about honor,
sacrifice, telling the stories
of the great queens and kings,
clumsy things, unsubtle\

my tutor told me I would need
to learn subtlety.

she's dead now.

I learned.