Pool is a good way for children to absorb some of the concepts of geometry. Lines and angles are an important part of the learning process. Of course, that happens after they learn how to even hold a cue and make proper contact with the ball. You have to hit the cue ball straight into another ball at the correct angle to get that other ball into a pocket. Bank shots are even more complex, introducing triangular comprehension. Later comes knowledge of spin, leverage, and combinations. These two are my grandchildren, Isaac and Skylah, who are just starting to get the hang of it, on a small pool table I have down my basement.

This poem is a Mirror Cinquain.
.A Cinquain is a five line poem. The format, inspired by Adelaide Crapsey in 1915, has a fixed syllable count of: 2,4,6,8,2. Rhyming is optional.
A Reverse Cinquain has the opposite syllable count of: 2,8,6,4,2.
A Mirror Cinquain is a combination of both the Cinquain and the Reverse Cinquain. So there are two stanzas with the following syllable count: 2,4,6,8,2 2,8,6,4,2. This gives a balanced pattern that is pleasing where one is the mirror image of the other. For this poem, I chose to use rhyme. The rhyme scheme is:

Abcca addbA, where the capital letters indicated a repeated line.

It is important that the stanzas actually do mirror each other, so the poet must be careful that they do. Once the syllable count is right and possibly the rhyme, some adjustments may be required. For example, I originally wrote it as shown below. Not very mirror like is it, even though it has correct syllable counts and the rhymes I wanted? I had to work on it, to get it right.

Children
playing at pool
learn of basic angles.
as geometry untangles,
balls run

Begun,
and without even knowing it,
lessons that benefit
These self-taught school
children

This photograph was taken by my daughter on her cell phone, on August 25, 2018

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