frozen pond, december eleventh

By Larissa Pham
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Photo by Andrew Bishop

we slid out onto the ice and stomped our feet,
watching our reflections clear as glass
grin back at us.
we could fall through at any moment, we both knew,
that was the hazardous joy of walking on water,
and i remembered the simple strokes
i practiced over the summer,
but there was no need—

we danced. marvelous, to imagine yourself
suspended over a habitat
of fish and worms and quiet creeping things
all sleeping at the bottom of the water;
to remember this lake wobbly and dilute,
to realize: i have conquered nature
or perhaps she has let me into her arms…

we lay on our backs staring up at the sky,
nothing but ice below us,
nothing but the molecules of the world around us,
and watched the clouds race the birds.

Larissa Pham is young and foolish and very excited about a great number of things. She is a senior in high school at Oregon Episcopal School and writes poetry, makes artwork, and frolics round the Portland metro area upon many an occasion.