Knowing How

I sat, tired from a day visiting,
comfortable in my son's distant home,
chilling  out with an old friend,
a game of Shisen on the computer.
My son moved next to me,
watched me play.
I remembered his saying
another time and place
of a different game,
"I've watched it played often."
I reached a stalemate,
asked for a hint...an obvious play
I'd missed. He said he'd thought
adjacent tiles could not be matched,
I said they can, I tend not to see them.
He asked the rules, and I stumbled,
probably said I don't go over one
or turn more than three times.
Close, but wrong: "connected
by three or less lines."
I knew by long doing,
he by focused watching.
And both were wrong.
For the stuff that counts,
I need to study and to act,
and without either
I know less than I could,
less than I should.