Lyn & d’Agostino – August 2021

Dane Lyn and Brita d’Agostino traded art and words. Brita shared this piece, titled “Gold #2” with Dane:

In response, Dane wrote this poem:

life in ornate amber

when Barbie was touched by 
the hand of Midas,
the little girls sighed with hunger to
be two-dimensional puzzle pieces, 
paper-light, 
scattered,
blown about. 
the bits and scraps then used 
to adorn the edges of plastic mirrors with their 
cracked silver stickers peeled off.
gold coins tumbled out their
tear ducts, as goblets caught the run off from
the melting of slick black eyeliner. 
arsenic toasts—
to glamor! 
to charm!
to glossy sorcery!

* * * * * *

Dane shared this poem with Brita:

roller rink royalty

unnatural fluorescent light flickers, no windows, a timeless place of leg warmers and banana
clips.
we made our own pom-poms for our skates out of yarn,
looped and looped and snipped with the scissors 
kept next to the green address book, golden tabs for each alphabet grouping.
my pom-poms were yellow and blue, an attempt to match the gold stripes on my blue,
skates I was proud of because they were sneakers, not boots. I liked being different, but 
also I liked that I fit in
at the roller rink, disco ball heady spinning among the bigger kids.
I never fell down, the youngest kid there, I stayed on the floor
for the backwards skate. None of that baby
backward skating where wheels don’t leave
the floor, real rexing.
I was a pro, or something.
I always knew what type of skate was upcoming.
Another One Bites the Dust was a contest.
the kid that did the music would start that song and 
stop it in time to the intervals in his greasy head.
when the music 
stopped, 
the hollow sound of cheap ball bearings, 
polyurethane, and polished maple 
was slowly interrupted, 
with the giggles of 
the skaters who fell while they attempted to stay upright
crouching down one skate out in front.
and another one down and another one down 
Freddie croons.
I was often among the last 
handful of skaters left on the floor
another one bites the dust
as the song ends, so does my brief reign as roller rink royalty.

In response, Brita made this image, titled “Spinnin’ with the Stars Above”: