Skaters: “Lara’s Theme”
They speed, glide, and slow, pirouetting twice,
then pause atop the tiny frozen lake.
Love calls across glare mirrors and thin ice.
I was dreaming but I hear something nice.
Grandma’s new music box calls me awake.
Two tiny skaters glide, then twirl twice
as if they’re dodging tin cans and tossed rice.
My breath clouds the mirror; it doesn’t break.
Love keeps them spinning on the thinnest ice.
Grandma explains: a magnetic device
works under the surface, for goodness sake.
The toy skaters glide, pirouetting twice.
Their frozen figures describe a paradise,
but widows know the flowing of heartache.
Love hurls men and women onto thin ice.
Grandma will remarry; once, twice, thrice.
She understands the motions it will take.
Lovers glide, then slow, pirouetting twice.
Love drowns their molten hearts in melting ice.
Leslie Schultz
This villanelle is based, as they say, on a true story, sparked by memories of my widowed grandmother, her collection of music boxes, and her several remarriages, all ending unhappily. Here she is, pictured in a hopeful moment, in 1969 (younger than I am now), stepping into her first remarriage.
Thanks for your readerly attention this week! Leslie
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Remarriage is a word that is new to me. It makes complete sense but I wonder why I’ve never heard it. It works just right, as does the ice with the skaters – perfect imagery – in this poem.
love the similar skating patterns as metaphor for karma that keeps repeating itself. In lieu of our recent convo at the Japanese restaurant, you have described perfectly the difficulty in changing our life patterns. I like the use of symbolic frozen ice and all that it may render in terms of beauty and grace, but also more treacherous qualities.