Skiing, after Summer-School

By: Mark Blackford

When my friends and I found that price, 

the one worth its weight 

in fresh powder, 

every day was a white Christmas 

in July. 

Our parents, 

for some reason, 

never asked Why?

when we crept 

into their rooms

like midnight cold-fronts,

fronted cold-hard-cash

bought blizzards

& went skiing, every day 

after summer-school

They said

the exercise was good for us;

that it made us look fit.

They loved how we looked

So good!

they would say;

Like movie stars!

We looked so good

we'd lock ourselves in the bathroom,

rip the mirror from the wall

so we could ogle ourselves

like movie stars: 

& get high 

off our reflections

We looked so good!

so scrawny

so sad

so tired  

so scared

& so alone: 

our once-happy eyes lifeless 

blood-shot, burnt-out bulbs; 

our smiles bound into frowns

by chain smoke. 

We looked good

enough to kill an appetite

but who of us needed food?

We had fresh powder

by the face-full, every day

the cold burn 

embedded into our nostrils. 

The taste engraved onto the plate. 

---

Mark Blackford was born and raised in Sullivan County, NY, only 20 minutes from the site of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. He received a B.A. in English from Valdosta State University (GA, 2010). He presently resides in Woodridge, NY with his wife and children, and is currently the Poet Laureate of Sullivan County, NY.