karate belt ceremony 

1.
bare feet & toe nails
soles smudged 
feet on the ceiling 
on the walls all trying
to remain still reminding 
the other feet that this is real
this is serious making 

2.
wooden boards breaking above
everyone's heads like
a flock of geese almost
managing to cut a cloud in half

3.
tea lights
each the captured ghost 
of a red belt who never made
it that last step to black

4.
a mythology about honor
& children trying to step
into the word 
trying to make sense 
of what honor could
mean in a strip mall dojo 
on a summer night 

5.
insects watching in 
the window & singing for bravery
for the children tying knots
around their wastes

6.
parents taking pictures 
as if they might find that exact
moment where their child becomes
something more than soft

7.
girls with pony tails
girls with pixie cuts
girls with boy fists 
and fists with boy names

8.
long mirror stretched across
the far wall where everyone looks
at themselves-- startled by
the uncanny occasional of 
watching two rooms full of the same people.

9.
each person with their 
separate desires to be alone 
with the mirror-- to practice 
a kata in it with no one
else watching as if to haunt 
the expanse if the dojo all alone

10.
wondering if there should
be prayer-- if this 
is the kind of place for talking
to any god or if ceremony 
is something different all together

11.
fingers & placing them 
on the blue matted ground

12.
a dragon behind the glass

13.
a dragon under the mat

14.
bare feet & removing old belts
like the skins of snakes
an apology
being to small to ask
what does this mean?

15.
what does this mean
out the window 
the Dunkin Donuts & Ritas signs
loom & stain something sacred 
that we could feel getting so close 

16.
putting on shoes with no socks
sitting in the car quiet
clenching both fists 
uniform still tied
a tea light in back of throat