Pairs Short Program

Watch the backwards inwards death spiral,

technical element introduced in the 1948 Olympics,

the woman hovers smoothly, levitates, you recall your

last time ice skating solo, a snow day impulse,

memories of watching the rink below,

walks in the park with your lover, your affianced,

freedom of being lonely, difficulty of partnering,

how in the death spiral the woman arches her back, 

she circles the man’s skates smoothly,

there are four death spiral variants, a skill you wish you had, 

to survive entanglement, to remain entangled, 

to come off the ice triumphant, hand-in-hand

Bringing My Mother Along

Once I ran from the house

to hide from her

another time, punished, wrote on my bedroom 

dresser’s side how I hated her. 

What did I know? Nothing, 

and less even than that. 

Now I bring her with me wherever I go,

holding her hand that she may be safe.

Nora Rawn works in subrights in publishing and lives in Brooklyn. She has had pieces published or forthcoming in Dodo Eraser, Dreck Lit, Be About It Press, Electric Pink, Tap Into Poetry, Burial Magazine, Some Words, and Michigan City Review of Books. She spends too much time on twitter under @norabird.