Skateboard Angels

Contributor: Mark Tulin

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The sun shines on skateboard angels
where teenagers do figure eights
in oval parks near ocean waves,
sliding along the silver rails
doing backflips and somersaults
over lazy seagulls and narrow walls
while kicking up their spinning boards,
snatching victory in the jaws of disaster.

The faces of the skaters change,
but the sounds of the skatepark remain;
wheels grinding on swooping concrete,
boards colliding in midair,
skaters tumbling from a hard fall,
war stories told to neophytes,
counting bumps and bruises;
immune to it all.

When you’re a young California kid,
your hair’s as yellow as the sun
and your mind knows no fear;
you take chances on the sharp curves
and the edges of the sloping bends,
believing that everything you try
will work out in the end.


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Mark is a former therapist who lives in California. He has a chapbook, Magical Yogis, and two upcoming books: Awkward Grace, and The Asthmatic Kid and Other Stories. He’s been featured in Fiction on the Web, Ariel Chart, Leaves of Ink, among others.