Brooke Forbes

I wasn’t paying attention to the gifted Lillies as they grew into full bloom:

Watery pink and white, a neat petal trumpet gong forth with dignity and might, 

Their presence mocked me,

Shocked as I was to find their once-ignored beauty. 

It’s like when I wasn’t paying attention in math class when the teacher spoke;

But would later cram and cram for an exam – only to discover it was not my pathway, that symbols and algebra didn’t capture my mind like language and expression; 

Even though, I can, from a distance, see the beauty in a neatly formulated proof. 

It must have shaken me however, this inability to master numbers, because I find myself, back again, at the exam table, in extended dreams at night, trying to piece together whether x = y or y = x. 

I’ve failed at more things than I have succeeded in – music, math, science, a News reading career.

Which makes sense, when you think about it, as you can only really succeed in one or two niches in a lifetime – due to the amount of energy needed to be spent on each endeavour, harvesting skillsets and mastering trades. 

If my trades are now law and writing, I may try to twist them into each other – neatly positioned sentences into affidavits and legal reasoning into poetry. 

I wonder if my attention span can attend to both areas at once – a jack of two trades, master of both. 

For now, the Lilly petals are falling.

Soon it will be Spring.