The Complex Physics of a Simple Thing

What makes it easy
in that moment
when the feathered
thing flies true
hitting the center
coming to a stop
with deadly ease

But is it ever easy
this complex motion
the turning of one
solid around the
other, the stacking
complications of
leverage and acceleration,
of air pressure and
the dispersal of
standing waves,

This minor miracle,
this expression of
stored energy, of
my own energy as it
is transmitted downrange

And is that energy an
element of spirit, are
my arrows in some way
imbued with an incalculable
element of myself

And if so, if I am what
my arrow is, and I go where
my arrow goes, what of the
errant shot, the flinch
at the moment of release

Are the components of my
spirit in turmoil, are there
minuscule wars between the
warp and weft of my essential
energies, or is that affixing
esoteric thought to a thing
that is, in essence

Simple flight, a moment of
bravery in the face of
universal forces, then a sudden
stop, and let us hope that the
stop is where we wish it, and
that our shot finds home.

Patrick M. Tracy
8/20/10