JOYCE CAROL OATES

Roller Rink, 1954

Looping & slamming & swinging their arms
Bobbie Sue & Vinnie & “I’m a Fool” rolling
wide on minature wheels at the turn & back
& down & bearing hard on the cement track
& dust in our nostrils eyes ears hair lungs—
delicious! as Juicy Fruit & Fats Domino &
sweet little Lilia the minister’s daughter
& Russ with the oiled hair in the red neon
stripes arms linked tight around each others’
waists in the careening dark & the roar of
the skates rolling wide like thunder as
the record shifts & for a heart’s beat
there’s silence                        & you shrug it off,
dropping a dime for a lukewarm bottle of Coke,
& the first dreamy notes of “Ebb Tide” slide
on & who’s this squeezing your scared sweaty
hand in his as the skate wheels roll around
& round & round, Christ don’t let midnight
come & the music end & this roar as of
freight cars over & the fine powdery film
like death in the skull’s cavities & coating
the pink tether lungs & the tongue too, spit-
ting & laughing in the parking lot & here’s
the flat unmoving earth again: going nowhere.