Rockville--By Marianne Szlyk--United States

Rockville

On Friday afternoon,
young skaters circle the rink,
performing winter's dance
for the parents
and pedestrians.

Meanwhile ornamental kale,
white and purple,
thrives
beneath the black locust trees.
Their leaves shrivel and harden
but do not drop.
Just like Christmas lights,
they hang on
in the afternoon’s warm, gray sheen.

Marianne Szlyk is the editor of The Song Is... Recently, she published her second chapbook, I Dream of Empathy, with Flutter Press. Her first, Listening to Electric Cambodia, Looking Up at Trees of Heaven, was published by Kind of a Hurricane Press. Her poems have appeared in Long Exposure, Of/with, bird's thumb, Solar Nation, Quill and Parchment, Silver Birch Press' series, Jellyfish Whispers, Napalm and Novocaine, Poppy Road Review, and other online and print venues including Kind of a Hurricane Press' anthologies.