Curling

Then you get your feet set right push and glide
and the ice rolls out behind you like a satin ribbon

and you don’t stop sliding past every line
past the walls go clear past the ice and the man

renting skates looks up from his magazine in surprise
and puts down his banana flip and stares and you go

past him and into the parking lot and your car and past
every driver on the street with a mochachino

and the street is cold and slick and you are silent
as a ballerina posed waiting for the music to stop or begin

and no one told you how to slow down or how
to stand so you stay crouched lunging

slide across the county across the state
you’ve stayed down for hours and days

your toe perfectly pointed and your hand
light as a feather on the stone but you will confess

your left thigh is twitching tired and your right
knee is inching farther down and then you look

up at the instructor and find you’ve gone three feet
and then the stone is gone and your ass is on the ice.