Enigmatic Teenage Years 4.9.2009 Poem by Margaret Alice

Tiaan is but fourteen and already
he is mastering that man-thing –
looking at me with the face of a
Sphinx, not an expression to be
seen on his immobile face as we
play Badminton

He much stronger and fitter than
me, I am the one who laughs and
screams while chasing about while
he remains super-cool with a passive
face as if doing an underwater ballet,
he just stretches his long arm

And hits the shuttlecock even with his
back turned to me, with great self-
confidence - I didn’t realize men
began to practice to be so
enigmatic in their
teenage years…