I SHARE A BIRTHDAY WITH TONYA HARDING

We have a predilection to abuse
antidepressants we are both tornadoes
of trailer trash who learned to skate

a bottle of bleach makes us lighter
to the cameras, the hand-sequined
leotard says frosting and cupcake

a cupcake that would fucking
deck you for that plate of prime rib
how quick and dangerous

we can be, lungs wet
with second hand smoke
how ready to skin a knee

I learned to skate backwards only
last year, it was the biggest accomplishment
of my life. Now I could undo the blemish

I’d made on the world, the looping
shallow scratch of my life, the jealousy
and need to succeed in royal purple

a bouquet better than a baby
in the arms, a bottle beneath the bed
and no friends to share it with I could

undo it all, I could be
the strongest in the world
a Barbie-pink bow in my permed hair

We could be someone our mothers
were proud of all it took was being
the very best in all the world

Halee Kirkwood is a 2019-2020 Loft Mentor Series Fellow and a recent recipient of an MFA from Hamline University. This piece was originally published in Issue I of the Under Review in December 2019. Their work has been published in Up The Staircase Quarterly, Muzzle Magazine, Cream City Review and others. They'd love to teach you to skate.