How can you call yourself a ninja

How can you call yourself a ninja
if you don't crouch

if you don't hold your arms out
from your sides, no one will realize
you are capable of holding back the air

when you stand in place, beating
like a spider

you wonder, if I face straight ahead
and look side to side, will I achieve
the effect of a covert mercenary, infiltrating
the 15th century, deviating
or will I look like one of those cat clocks, instead

you wonder
if you could have any integrity at all, you would
pay your respects to the warrior of the noble class, embrace a death
of honor and timeliness, if only you knew
what any of these things mean in the 21st century

is having a good posture
such a bad thing, to let the moment you should die
pass you by, like stars hurling through space

you imagine silently fading backwards into the dark
or maybe that's the illusion
when everyone else steps forward