Sandra Kolankiewicz

Skating at Mill Pond

 
Sometimes we don’t want to know, frequency
so low we can’t arrive.  Gratitude is
a stone in the pock­et to remind you
to smile, and also a rock that drags you
down into the black of the glacial pond
to see the lit­tle boy at the bottom
in his skates, still hold­ing his hock­ey stick,
look­ing just as sur­prised as you.  We had
a rope swing in the sum­mer, no rocks just
below the sur­face, and all knew the
water was run­ning, for the old wheel still
turned. The falls came from some­where underground
and after­wards con­tin­ued some­place else
above, by spring melt­ing, run­ning over the ice
cubes in his mother’s glass, some­thing you can
under­stand only if you too have drowned.

~

Sandra Kolankiewicz’s work has appeared wide­ly, most recent­ly in Appalachian Heritage, BlazeVox, Gargoyle, Fifth Wednesday, Prick of the Spindle, Per Contra, Prairie Schooner, Appalachian Heritage, and Pif. Turning Inside Out won the Black River Prize at Black Lawrence Press. Finishing Line Press pub­lished The Way You Will Go.  Blue Eyes Don’t Cry won the Hackney Award for the Novel. ”Lost in Transition” is souls lost to drug addic­tion.  She lives with her fam­i­ly Appalachian Ohio.  http://sandrajkolankiewicz.blogspot.com/