This month Women Writing for (a) Change-Bloomington poets are participating in National Poetry Writing Month.  Every day we will offer up a new  poem by a writer in our community.  Check back after 6:00pm for the Prompt of the Day and the selected resulting poem.

Today’s challenge is to write a poem of origin. Where are you from? Not just geographically, but emotionally, physically, spiritually?

Day 11 – Origin Story by Allison Distler

The cold cracks my face like an egg
of snow on my nose, my legs exposed
covered only by sheer lycra mesh, and
the music’s on. My arms float like wires
suspended by angels of graceful
landing.
I know
the worst thing to do, is fall. I carry
on the ‘be calm, be calm’ girls
slight – fast racers on blades
encircle the cage of ice and we
digest the shape of the judges
eyebrows, watching like hawks on a
road sign our every
angle. My heart, not able to be frozen
pounds like an anvil to my steel ribs.
I don’t even know what
nervous is.