ability

He was a genius, once,
when semicolons needed placement
more often than they do now.

when lawns needed mowing
in particular row arrangements.

when the correct packing of minivans
suited for a family vacation was necessary.

when the ordering of stock and supplies for
various events became the norm for friday nights.

not here, though,
situated on a foreign bed,
grasping for some innate ability to
mould all these others’ opuses into
his own.

but ha!
it’s not so simple to think that
only those things are ever necessary.

perhaps there is insight for him,
and somewhere, organised neatly
under that travel equipment, or
tucked between appropriately spliced and semicoloned clauses,
under the clippings of horizontally-manicured urban grass scapes,
in the shipping and receiving statements of trans fat-laden treats,
there is a man who
knows he has a place here,
one where he can give all he can
and even if perfection is out of reach
it’s something more than what he thought he ever could have given
had giving up ever been contemplated.