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.