girls roller-skating

a bowl full of rainbow light
on the rink's hard-wooden floor

that winter
you took me roller skating

on a monday night
& no one else was there.

just a snack stand man
& the shadowy human who 

chose the music from 
the booth near the rink.

we protested him to change 
songs but he never responded,

just shifted in the dark of 
the booth. he might not have been real.
you were effortless, gliding
around & around, kicking 
the lights with your wheels;
a vehicle of skin

all the while i inched slowly, 
gripping the wall as i went, watching 

your acrobatics. your smoothness,
like a cake-topper in motion.

ankle-deep in sugar-frosting
& food-dye flowers

you came & grabbed my forearms,
tugged me out to the center

where the disco ball 
hung, a ripe unknown fruit,

your blue eyes turning into
wheels to escape away with me,

& i knew full well that we were
supposed to be girls & that this 

was what we were meant to do.
i got the momentum; side to side

each leg like the tongue of a clock,
sweaty & straining to make 

the skates embrace the awkward 
7th grade body they held up.

i sometimes still wake up with 
the skates on,
the shoelaces don't come untied
so i just have to shuffled,
clutching counters in my house, & 
there's no disco ball just 

a ceiling fan. the wheels like 
to laugh at me-- they have girl-voices. 

the human in booth plays the same 
songs still, only now they're in the corner 

of my kitchen. these mornings i wish 
you were here to steady me.