O' Maley Birthday Party
Renting the Hockey Rink with Pizza
By: Melissa de Haan Cummings - Jul 14, 2015
O'Maley Birthday Party
Enjoying pretty things
earrings boots skirts
with pink thong to match
fuschia shirt to blend
I like those boots with the fur on top
It looks like animal fur
but they probably washed them
or they'd be gross
The reason I didn't see your
tennis moves is I was occupied
with the iPad I did find that word
you and Riley were stuck on
O great! What was it?
I can't remember now
The best place to shoot is
You want to know the best place to shoot?
when the goalie's in the butterfly
aim over the pads above his calves
Pass a snack machine triggering
the need to put the credit card
into it and choose pretzel like
shapes such as hearts barely high
enough to put the magic into the slot
Carol Figurido comes down the steps
Is that Melissa? teaches Dylan
to turn the strip and swipe
and the orange bag stirs
tumbles to the bottom
Are those pretzels?
It has cheese in it
They aren't bad for you
On the road to Ipswich
see sticks and a shovel
in the snow hung with
pails and buckets
for mail collection
When I go places
I don't really want to go
like haircut places
I pretend I'm home
watching T V
that's why I'm so quiet
People like that
I'm so excited for the birthday party!
O you should be! Renting the whole rink!
They're going to have pizza and cake!
Your favorite food! Pizza is first
chocolate ice cream is second
cake is third and broccoli is four
I like broccoli! I do too!
It makes me go to the bathroom!
You have to go to the bathroom
You feel lighter and have more energy!
I've never been up these stairs before
I know all of this whole rink
I'll show you the high school
dressing room! There it is!
Nobody knows what's in there!
It's locked and my friends
think I'm not here because
I always dress in there
Dad has the key
You tie skates good!
Nice and tight! Tie my own
reluctantly nervously
take up my stick and
ask how you open the door
move to the ice and feel
the right skate is loose
return retie try for more
find pucks on the net
shoot weak shots on a boy
who blocks with milk crates
gather confidence skate out
a bit see and share with a dad
of my ability play goal tender
find my shoulders stuck
on the top shelf after sending
a few pucks out to be reshot
skate the length of the rink
when I wonder how much more
it is already only six minutes
I could use another half hour
enjoy sending wayward pucks
back to the net milk crates
off ice. Sata! Your stick handling
is better without skates!
O yeah! Did you have fun?
O yeah!
Join two young men and an older
to find out the slot is the area
in front of the goal the best
place to shoot from
but it's always crowded!
The hash marks on the circles
define where each team goes
like the key on the basketball court
Turns out they know Ri Dylan
tells me one of these guys is
Jared Favazza whose grandma
I chat with is cousin to is it
Colby Jewell on Riley's team
Favazza captain of the high school
team won in Bedford today
is ten four and four may play
Concord Carlisle who have nine wins
Playoffs coming and Dylan has
a playoff in Lynn on Sunday
Talking to a father who lives up the street
congratulated because I didn't fall down
how his girl did well skating
without holding the boards
coming from New Hampshire
and twenty years in Arizona
single and not finding the city life
hoped for in Somerville
his buddy from Wenham
Told him dont go back to
Arizona check out the North Shore
The North Shore what's that?
renting a house in Magnolia
with two people met on Craig's List
finding Magnolia stunning
then married on The Little Heater Road
he didn't call it that called it
Magnolia Avenue too busy
and close to the road you had to
get in the car to take the dog
for a walk drive three minutes
first and no place to ride a bike
unreal traffic all the time
how he quit the gym when daughters
came along joined the Y a kid
practises gymnastics there
so he can work out he used to see
me at the MAC am I still there
does the former owner still own it
still married to that woman
who works out fifty hours a day
isn't doing well had a second major surgery
to remove cancer all through his abdomen
is the same age as the father
I say about Josh doing well
he says about two of his peers
doing well should have been dead
turns out he met Denise Recklehoff's
Erica at The Blackburn Tavern
Hah! The Blackburn Tavern!
The Rhumb Line! Captain Carlo's!
bought Nancy Newman's house
across from her dad and mom
how we watched it being assembled
when my guys were say five and three
I felt so bad for the Newmans when
Nancy and family returned to Florida
the father says they have come back
live near The Willows
That's cracked I say I spent multiple
hours at Denise's kitchen table
who told me Scott Mhic Neill
had passed she sitting on the
fence rail at Plum Cove Beach
with her arm in a sling waiting
with a big guy for a ride
to the funeral and she still
drives a CATA bus
the dad goes to find his second grader
I spy Ama Irene talking
Canadian French to the baby
rebuke her for not skating
she didn't want to disturb me
envy the people still skating
Dylan sees teammate number eleven
whose dad is a beautiful skater
Home to Daddy and Riley
who was missed during his overnight
Happy to have hockey practise
in a few hours play hockey on Wii
first while Dad snuggles on the big bed
beneath a navy colored comforter
this coldest day of the year