ON HEARING THAT THE GREEK WORD FOR "SIN" MEANS "MISSING THE MARK"

Sometimes a

bullseye

Is hard to hit.

The arrow sails

a little right

or left

of the target.

Sometimes you get

so close

that you’re happy

simply to have connected

at all.

But sometimes

the arrow

flies too far afield

and lands in the dense

brush, is lost, and you

have to reach

for another

in your quiver.

In those moments

you simply thank god

you have more

arrows

to chose from.

Once again, you lift your bow

focus and concentrate

and draw back the string.

The tension builds in

your muscles

and much of the time

you’re not sure just

when to release.

But the moral

of the story is

that even if you miss

the mark,

if you pull the strings

enough

not bow-like,

but harp-like,

it sometimes
sounds like music.