Skating

Remember roller-skating in El Paso,
two or three times every week?
Envious of local, competition skaters –
their speed and grace, strength, endurance,
I wanted to glide like them.

Did well to skate without falling,
cross one foot over the other
turning corners on the wooden rink floor.

Enjoyed playing games on skates.
"Put your left foot in, put your left foot out ...
put your left foot in and shake it all about ..."

My mother paid for lessons she could not afford.
I learned to balance, to push with one foot,
roll along the figure eight line, forward and backward.

I learned to Tango.

She remarried,
wwwwwwe moved to Las Cruces,
wwwwwwwwwwthat was the end of that.