I step out and stroke forward;
Elbows balanced on the same wind that licks my hair.
Already my blood prickles from the rush pumped by the axel in my chest.
I slow and allow my arms to rest
Into the grooves I’ve imprinted during the darkest of frozen nights.
My body instinctively checks its pose and sets with a click.
I coil myself
Then release into a vortex;
Fingerprints tracing ribbons into the frostbitten air that cocoons me
Until my hands collapse into me and I am only a breath,
A smudge in the center of the rink.
As my knees extend I spur toward the rafters,
so concave that a vacuum consumes me
And all that’s left of me are the sparkles that are expelled
Like hail from a hurricane.

But in a sliver of a moment, in one degree of the circle I paint,
You shatter me.
Your shavings spit upon me as my toepick drills a wound
And you toss me to the side,
Yanking me from my starlight prematurely
And plastering my tangled carcass across your slate.
I feel you goading my blades to slash me.

All I ever tried to do was sketch my simple doodles on your window,
Decorate your silver skin with the stencils you created.
Yet you abuse me for it;
Seizing my face and bashing it with your great palm.
This my punishment for imperfection
As I am starving to meet your cruel demands,
And let you wrap me ‘round your little finger
‘til I am spun as only the spindle can.