Mythic Ambidexterity

The kind of mirrored skills
A precious proficiency for literature and film
Though not found in nature
One hand writing
The other hand writing
All different messages
Or maybe the same
Or maybe reversed
Or maybe one hand rolls a cigarette
And the other does needlepoint
Or maybe one hand writes a novel
While the other does the dishes.

A young musician chops his mother’s vegetables in a steady 4/4 beat
But he taps out a crazy 3/7 with his feet and the whole thing sounds so funny to him.

A fisherman turns a bowline knot one-handed
And keeps baiting hooks with the other and he don’t even notice.

A majorette rotates through her cartwheel
While her baton just keeps on spinning and won’t ever stop.

Walking down the sidewalk with Carl and
we are watching for fossils in the cement
And I’m rubbing the back of my neck at the same time as
I’m tracing a trilobite’s outline in my pocket.