Letter To A Young Girl

LETTER TO A YOUNG GIRL / Kendra Kopelke "The 22-year-old woman—described as "severely retarded" turned her head and either lost or let go of the grips." Dianca, the juggler could manage three glass bottles in the air evenly spaced like notes and it made my body feel so musical air whistling through bones that I didn't notice your wheelchair leaving my hands the grey wheels rolling faster down the brick ramp the spokes gave off a light that broke sunlight as you headed straight for deep water crashing through it like it was paper but you disappeared beneath the picture . . . Others dove, our supervisor fainted and someone grabbed my hands but I couldn't feel it listening to the screams strapped to everyone else's mouths so foreign and loud my throat grew wet when I heard the splash hitting the air saw sHvers of water lodged in the frozen crowd and I knew for once this life was real, you pulling the sky into your lap and rushing to a rougher shore impossible to survive— We took so long remembering what to do to live how to keep our fingers wrapped firmly around the hair brush where to hide our loose change 52 · The Missouri Review that now I am frightened forgetting the way each object fits into my hands and when I walk I grope for handles of air to push along in front of me still smelling your red hair falling from your shoulders. Kendra Kopelke The Missouri Review · 53 ...