Michelle Desbarats
Skating
It only happens rarely that the line between
fall and winter is a single sheet
snap frozen on the lake no snow or
wind to mar the surface. Trees black-feather
the low border of grey sky. The ice a clear glass
and the shallow pebbled bottom of the
lake passing below me as if I’m flying.
The sudden darkness of this land dropping away,
my breath catching, and fish appearing beneath my feet,
a muscled brightness that I begin to follow.
Michelle Desbarats was born in Winnipeg, grew up in Montreal and Charlottetown and resides in Ottawa. Her first book of poetry, Last Child to Come Inside, was published by Carleton University and McGill-Queen’s University Press in 1998. She has received grants from the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Ottawa and the Banff Writing Program.
© Michelle Desbarats
Comments (1) show/hide
This is lovely. You must have skated on Shoal Lake too :)
Sometimes in November there's no snow in Manitoba but the temperature can be -20 or even -30. When the wind blows across the open prairie lake you just have to open your jacket and turn your back to fly:)
posted by Patinage poetique on February 28, 2007 09:55 PM ^