Ganbare
Posted: 13 May 2018, 00:08
Ganbare
When my bicycle I was learning to ride
under a blueberry sky tumbled
like a shot horse, mom shouted "Ganbare!"
"Hang in there!"
And mom's advice when years later
I stuttered like a lovesick cricket
asking a girl to dance?
"Ganbareā¦"
It was as if the word could heal
a burnt forest, or a heart
as gashed as any pinata's...
And when I struggled with Spanish
as if it were a car engine's parts
strewn across a garage floor
that I would never be able
to assemble?
Of course...."Ganbare".
Would mom have lost her faith in me
if I had never learned a Spanish word
other than sombrero?
Or if every nail I hammered
had buckled? No, there would always
have been another shiny nail waiting
to be perfectly struck down.
"Hang in there...Ganbare!"
was as constant as any algebraic axiom,
a north star that to this day
my heart's compass
turns to.
When my bicycle I was learning to ride
under a blueberry sky tumbled
like a shot horse, mom shouted "Ganbare!"
"Hang in there!"
And mom's advice when years later
I stuttered like a lovesick cricket
asking a girl to dance?
"Ganbareā¦"
It was as if the word could heal
a burnt forest, or a heart
as gashed as any pinata's...
And when I struggled with Spanish
as if it were a car engine's parts
strewn across a garage floor
that I would never be able
to assemble?
Of course...."Ganbare".
Would mom have lost her faith in me
if I had never learned a Spanish word
other than sombrero?
Or if every nail I hammered
had buckled? No, there would always
have been another shiny nail waiting
to be perfectly struck down.
"Hang in there...Ganbare!"
was as constant as any algebraic axiom,
a north star that to this day
my heart's compass
turns to.