THE THIRD GRADERS

This is a picture of Leslie Gold
in one of those four-for-a-quarter
photograph booths, with me
peeking in from the side.

It was supposed to be a picture
of both of us,
but she's prettier anyway
and she's been my best friend
for two years now.

We're all bundled up
for ice skating,
only her hat shapes her face
while my scarf pushes down my hair
and flattens my cheeks --

I look like I fell on the ice
trying to imitate the figure eights
Leslie made so gracefully.

A year later the Golds moved
and I went skating with Lee Silverstein
who was a year younger, had no friends,
and limped because she'd had polio.
If there'd been pictures, maybe
I'd have had the nerve to crowd her out.

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Copyright © 1997 by Rochelle Ratner.

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