Thinking of the two girls I saw on
Christmas Day, 2011. Sisters or friends,
I don’t know, but they skateboarded through
empty parking lots and vacant alleys.
Having a good time, it seemed, ‘boarding
through an empty city on Christmas Day,
their bodies as skinny as my arm, their
voices loud for such spindly timbre.
I walked west on Northern Boulevard.
They kept passing me as they weaved
in and out of building backways and paths,
laughing and challenging and double-daring.
It seemed like a nice childhood memory to have.
They passed me on the sidewalk on Northern
as I photographed a payphone. They swirled and
circled around me like kites, unaware of my travels.
I saw them last in the parking lot outside Starbucks.
They were racing, but together,
smiling and laughing, rolling through Queens,
pointing toward Sunnyside and heading south like
conquering adventurers, the sounds of their
skateboard wheels roaring and growling through the
silent Christmas streets.