Starting Over

now my task is to simply lift the instrument to my lips,
noting when my shoulders tense, dropping my flute again
towards the earth, so heavily, feeling the fibers of each muscle
slide away from each other like fingers releasing a cats cradle
only to capture air between them again, their surprise evident
in the resistance and release again, and so jazz drops away
and all that was learned reshuffles like so many molecules
in this game of life.