A girl flickers by. 

She skates skillfully over the ground slick. 

The lights are burnt out, but still, she skates. 

Her head tilted towards the sky and stars, 

She lifts her hands up and in and she twirls, 

The world around her a snowy blur. 

It is cold, but she can’t feel a thing skating above the clouds.

 

Leaving trails of frost, 

She twirls in sync with the constellations 

And all the empty space in between 

And she is lost in the beauty of it all. 

She and her partner, 

A searing cold star, 

Glide across the rink. 

Hand in hand. 

In a slumping house hit hard by a winter storm, you might just find

A grinning girl in her warmest winter socks 

sliding over newly mopped wooden floors

With a glowing handheld lamp to guide the way.

Caroline Quan