MEMORIES: PINE HILL

UP AND DOWN PINE HILL

Face down on the Flexible Flyer,

Runners tuning up, a

Conveyer of tire-treaded snow

Trembling into motion,

My watery eyes slitted by wind

Singeing my nose and chin,

At the curve I slid onto unresisting air,

Exhilerated as a sky diver,

And thumped, breathless, onto the virgin drifts

Of a neighbor’s sunken garden.

In spring we wound on roller skates,

Turning butterfly keys until

Clamps tightened on shoe soles,

Tenacious as bulldogs. Then,

Head down and arms swinging, we

Herringboned up the sidewalk

And schussed down, knees bent,

Locomotive wheels clacking,

Hedges blurring past, decelerating

At last to a leisurely standstill.

Summers we stood on bicycle pedals,

Weaving drunkenly uphill.

Fall was leaves whispering underfoot as,

Schoolbags slung over shoulders,

We slogged through fungal fragrance

While peach and violet sunsets

Silhouetted the limbs of lindens.

I still love scrambling and

Panting up precipitous trails

Or jogging on snowshoes down.