21 Dec Skating with Jane (on Grenadier Pond)

baritone & piano [4’]; words Richard Sanger, 2021.

Performers: Alex Samaras and Gregory Oh
Video: Juliet Palmer

Skating with Jane
(on Grenadier Pond)

by Richard Sanger

Skates and toddlers piled in
with hockey stick,
we galumph sled down slope
to see how thick
the ice is, take a step
and test our weight.
Our boys can hardly walk,
let alone skate,
but the pond is a dare
we can’t resist,
an equation we’ll prove
only like this:
black, hard, smooth as mica.
You lace up fast
and race off to carve scratch
after white scratch
in this high-gloss tabletop.
I undo boots,
buckle up kiddie skates,
rearrange toques,
mitts, try to warm with words
their frozen hands,
then send them out onto
the bright expanse
we’ve got all to ourselves—
this adventure
that stretches clear to Queen,
touched here and there
with wisps and drifts of snow
the wind pushes
against their cheeks, across
the lake’s dark surface,
the whole Breughelesque scene—
which you skate back
towards me on… And then—
then there’s a crack
like a rifle going off,
an almighty PING
—sound of sheet metal
caught in the wind—
that ricochets around,
reverberates
over the lake and hums
beneath our blades.
You stopped; they tottered on.
I can’t forget
your eyes exploding wide,
sure this was it,
the ice that held, that held,
the smile that spread—
no, broke across your face:
Holy shit, you said. Holy shit.

From Dark Woods (Biblioasis, 2018)