Skill Sets

    1

In the first cartoons
the mutability of forms
was a laugh riot:

bouncing biceps,

one foot growing huge
to stomp a cricket—

and staying that way.

The aye-aye’s
first finger. 

    
     2

It’s one thing to rate pains
on a number scale,

another to judge them 
qualitatively—

aching, stinging
or burning?

Only we can do this

no matter how many
feed-back loops

they put into the machines.

    
     3

Be specific:
include kinks and tics,

a good twinge
in the roots

when the brush is pulled
hard

through time’s 
tangled mess.

Here’s the catch:

you can’t know
you’re in a costume

and also  
be serious