ice skating (excerpt)

the great white rink
the exchange of shoes for laced up boots and a blade
the cold wet hard deck you will fall on at least four times
ankle braces because of liability, we asked to see it
they could not produce it, we took the time anyway
in case they were needed which they were after three times down
it was as though the ankle usually upright and balanced was suddenly
a weirdly unstable pivot on which all your weight slides back and fro
like an airplane in a violent storm
or the scattered remains of memory
jettisoned during war
a time capsule of fictional memories

[continued elsewhere]