Passing the Skatepark

by Dan Overgaard

Such energies propel these wheeling kids.
They might be testing anti-gravity
devices, calibrating kicks and skids
for plywood rockets to infinity.
An audience of restless testers leans
against the fence. These are the serious peers,
whose scrutiny and skepticism screens
all comers, and will check their fears.

One launches out with passion, flying down,
igniting her propulsion. Scoring air,
she draws an arc above the passing cars
and looks around—recalculating there—
as if she could decide to carry on
beyond the moon, and all the way to Mars.