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/