This Glimpse

by Sara Backer

I never learn how to enter the egg beater

of two ropes swinging Double Dutch.

How to sit wearing a miniskirt.

How to sit next to strangers.

How to include myself when they decide

to go downtown for drinks.

How to drink.

How to talk about myself but not too much.

How to ask for a ride home.

But I know how to walk alone at night.

The snow is invisible except

under a streetlamp—bright tadpoles flying!

* * * * *

"This Glimpse" is from Sara Backer's collection Such Luck (Flowstone Press, 2019).