On Systems Of Hyper-Discipline Poem by Denis Mair

- - -after reading WARP SPEED by Anais Vionet, a pre-med undergrad, in which she contemplates the challenges of following a career path laid out by her mother (a true tiger mom) . These challenges include an upcoming two-month summer internship, during which she will 'shadow' her mentor, who is a prominent neuro-surgeon
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EVEN though it's doable, you're letting yourself in for a pretty formidable undertaking. All that knowledge you'll acquire will amplify your reach like a cyborg, maybe like a power-assisted exoskeleton. It's good to get a sense of who the undifferentiated you is, while you're still pour-able.

ON THE mild days it will be like a ceramics kiln, or else a drop forge. There will probably be a drill sergeant type. Worst of all, you may become your own drill sergeant. Will you hector yourself?

CLAY gets kneaded and put in the kiln one way or another. Those in the fancy set, after a couple of twists, will find that committing themselves to a pretzel shape is also strenuous. Materialism always requires more material.

UNDISCIPLINED readers don't know what such a firing process feels like, and will gladly be spectators. Meanwhile, telling about it will help the teller to re-pour herself into an undifferentiated form periodically. And the female voice, or any individual voice, probably benefits from challenges.

I SUPPOSE people since ancient times have been making themselves semi-bionic with systems of hyper-discipline. But nowadays the training regimens for professional careers have really upped the ante on that.

I THINK it's intriguing that a hyper-disciplined state can alternate with the pour-able state. There is an aesthetic of how things fade in and out.

MAYBE 'idle' reading is an undisciplined activity. But maybe it's also like a middle finger held up toward systems of hyper-discipline. Maybe idle reading and not-so-idle writing help to keep the pourable state in circulation. To contribute to such an entrancement would be no small thing.