Olivia Cole
Arabesque
I walked so far in boots on snow
the skin of my feet is yellow:
rough to the touch; hard packed
as ice, adamant as a lovebite.
They refuse, even now , back on
floor boards and tiles to soften or fade.
I hear myself move like the dulled clatter
of drummed fingers or pointe shoes
on wood. Mid-afternoon – in Russia
it would be dark. I open the window,
watch the steam escape and make a banya
of my luke warm bath. Weak and mild
as coffee and vodka and winter here,
I take a stone, try to chide my heels
back into soft pink shape – give up,
get out, and drip dry like a thaw
and still hear the blunt pebble clatter
as if at any second I’m going to arch
taut as a bridge across the frozen river
and wait, lit up, the way the hardened feet
of dancers wait, to almost fall, into the next beat.
Page(s) 70
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