Wednesday afternoon

Here is a poem I just found:

Tintype on the Pond, 1925

BY J. Lorraine Brown

Believe it or not,

the old woman said,

and I tried to picture it:

a girl,

the polished white ribs of a roast

tied to her boots with twine,

the twine coated with candle wax

so she could glide

uninterrupted

across the ice—

my mother,

skating on bones.