Couples Skate

When the lights dimmed, we knew
to start looking for a partner, and I
always picked the same one: a boy
with dark hair and a shy smile.
We reached for each other, our hands
not yet sweaty, our strides on the rink
confident and sure as we moved
to Air Supply and REO Speedwagon,
groups we made fun of, but whose songs
were perfect for slow skating.
The Disco ball threw silver onto
the hardwood floor, the black light
made everything white, glow.
Once, I saw a girl flaunt her bra
when it shone bright underneath
her thin crocheted sweater.
But I wasn’t so bold. For days before
every roller skate rink excursion,
I tried on different outfits, making sure
the same thing didn’t happen to me.
Still, whenever I skated with that
boy, the one with dark hair
and a shy smile, I hunched over
trying to hide myself, even though
he stared straight ahead, seldom
really looking my way.

Karen J. Weyant’s first full-length collection, Avoiding the Rapture was published last fall by Riot in Your Throat press. Her poems have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Copper Nickel, Harpur Palate, Fourth River, Lake Effect, Rattle, River Styx and Slipstream. She lives, reads and writes in Northern Pennsylvania but is an Associate Professor of English at Jamestown Community College in Jamestown, New York.