Teenagers Skateboarding

First, after the sun comes back out,
the teenagers and I head off to
the skate park where I will watch them
and casually write while soccer practice
occurs in the field below. One boy,
in a plaid shirt, maintains a glance at
my diet soda for a moment before
gliding off and eclipsing my view of
the small-breasted woman in her
January jacket, pushing a stroller.
What chariot, I thought, entrusted
with the delivery of myself or the
next successful entrepreneur of a
burgeoning uranium reclamation industry!
Then, the sound of wheels and particle
board scraping across the cement.
They are young and would not know
about inflation or jihad but I
am certain nevertheless that they
are our future. The one in the
plaid shirt is trying to perform a
trick where he jumps off his board
at the corner of a ramp and then
to land on it again. I have seen him
attempt it fifteen times unsuccessfully.
By what cosmic insight does he get the
notion that the next time will be
any different?