My Winter Break

YES!!!
I was doing it
The whiteness swirled around me
I skidded, back and forth
But even as I skidded
I was in control

This was so cool!
I hadn’t been able to do this my whole life
A cold breezed filtered into my layers,
Touching my skin with a cold whack,
But even this couldn’t make me feel bad
I was on a roll

“This really isn’t that steep”
I called excitedly to my dad
As I whooshed down the mountain
“this is steep!”
He called back, amazed that I was doing so well.

Back and forth I went down that mountain
Sweeping back and forth in big, wide, curves
I finally understood skiing,
And why people could do this forever

Then I hit the ice.
I had just turned back for another swoop.
One second I was executing a perfect turn
The next, I was shooting down the mountain
Like I had been shot out of a cannon

Along the way, my brain processed the fact
That I had hit a patch of ice
That smooth surface I had tried to glide across
Had really been
A dangerously big patch of ice

I skidded down the mountain
Completely out of control
Amazingly, I was still half standing up
I tried to slow myself down
I stick my right pole into the snow
But it was just ripped out of my grasp

I turned to see what had happened to my pole
In doing so, I sent myself into crazy spirals
I realize that if I want to stop, maybe I can take off one of my skis
I lean down, and it unlocks
Now as the other pole goes flying out of my hand
All that I have left is one ski

Which, even now, is falling off, being taken by the snow
I slide a couple more feet on my butt and finally come to a stop
By butt gently resting in the cold snow

I gaze up at the mountain
I see all of my equipment scattered behind me
And I wonder
How something can go from fun to terror
In one second