Emily Rosko

Killer Instinct

They say it is a virtue
on the court. The first
problem is you. You
cannot run out the clock.

You cannot expect
to win. There’s no relation
between the last point
and the one in play.

Each set’s a new level.
What’s going to happen
is self-created: the mind
projects a bridge

as if each moment 
should connect to
the next. “Should”
is different than “is.” 

There is no basis
in reality; it’s a fiction.
I don’t know how
I’ve arrived here

holding on to false
beliefs that winning
makes you better.
It’s too easy to fall

into self-defeat,
or to adjust the play
to an opponent’s
level. Focus on

unlearning the fear
of regret. Of saying no;
of saying I give. You,
who are out for blood,

why compete? All
the faults add up.
Look now how lovely
my trophies of weakness.

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Emily Rosko is the author of three poetry collections: Weather Inventions (U Akron P 2018); Prop Rockery (U Akron P 2012); and Raw Goods Inventory (U Iowa P 2006). She co-edited A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line (U Iowa P 2011). She is Professor of English at the College of Charleston and an editor at swamp pink.