Between Speed Skating and Waitressing

We were chalk and cheese
but thick as thieves,
haunting the ice rink together:
bright smiles in the photo booth;
cheese burgers and ice cream floats;
sneaking in the bar underage
for rum and coke.

We were young, and drunk
on our own loveliness,
maxi coats buttoned against icy air,
dashing through the foyer
with cheeky grins and a wave
at red-coated bouncers,
embarking on a friendship for life.

Kim M. Russell, 28th February 2023

Image found on Pinterest

For this week’s Poetics at the dVerse Poets Pub, Punam writes about friendship. She starts with a wise quotation from Hafiz Hoshiarpuri, and goes on to tels us about her best friend, whose birthday is today. It is also the seventh anniversary of her blog, which she says her friend encouraged her to start, and she did it as a birthday gift – a delightful reason for a blog! I love to read about friendships that have lasted four or more decades – I regularly chat on Google Meet with my best friend of 56 years.

Punam writes: ‘it is said that friends are the family one chooses. They are the ones closest to one’s heart’, with which I wholeheartedly agree. But she also says that physical proximity is not a criteria for an enduring friendship’ – I know that from my own long-distance friendships, and the friends I have made on the on-line writers circuit.

Punam would like us to pick opening lines from blogger friends’ poems (with due permission/acknowledgement) and use them in our poems on friendship.

I have taken the opening lines from a poem by Sarah Connor that she posted on my birthday. I wasn’t taking part in prompts at the time, so I’ve only just read it and it’s perfect for this prompt. It’s called ‘At the restaurant’ from 10th August 2022.

I wanted to include a photo of my friend and me age fourteen or fifteen in our Ice Rink Grillette uniforms, taken in the above-mentioned photo booth but, after searching high and low, I couldn’t find it.

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37 thoughts on “Between Speed Skating and Waitressing”

  5. Love this, Kim – all of it, though it was the mention of your maxi coats that caved me in with nostalgia! I wonder what colour yours was? Mine – more like a long midi, but then I am tall – was the most wondrous aubergine-y plum colour in the softest wool, with a glorious hood. But I never went skating …

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  8. Very nice, Kim. Does “embarking on a friendship for life” mean what I’m thinking? I have similar skating history; I met my first wife on skates. We had a nice rink, organ with player and all. Our marriage lasted 13 years but things changed. The weekend just past my wife now and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary.
    I don’t think I will post for this one, I’ve a busy day and evening. Next time.
    Oh yes, I became a great grandfather for the fifth time yesterday. A little girl, “Elizabeth”.
    ..

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    1. The friend I wrote about in this poem is a girl I went to school with. Funnily enough, my husband is also an old school friend, Jim. Congratulations on your 50th wedding anniversary and and your latest great granddaughter. I’m going to Hampshire on Friday for my grandson’s fifth birthday. Have a good one!

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  12. Beautiful Kim. I remember being young and drunk on youthful beauty (handsomeness). And oh, the wonderful boldness and immortality of youth. Excellent poem and use of the line you chose my friend!

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  13. What a lovely memory poem, Kim. I lived in the UK in the early 1980s while stationed at RAF Lakenheath. I remember my maxi coat! I loved it… until I backed up against a calor heater and burned a hole in the back! I haven’t thought about that for years. Thanks for the memories.

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  16. I’ve only just seen this, Kim. I’ve been away for the whole of Feb, and I took everything off my phone and just concentrated on enjoying the moment. I’m delighted you used my lines – I think you’ve made them your own!

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    1. Thank you Sarah! I’m so glad you enjoyed your time away. Missed you and glad you’re back. I’m off a lot now. Just returned from Hampshire and Lucas’s fifth birthday celebrations. I had lots of cuddles with baby Louie too. I’m going back for five days in 20th March. 🤗

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