Cold As Ice

After the Game

You're as cold as ice
You're willing to sacrifice our love

We sat in the small-town burger barn
and the song played over the speakers.
Coach nodded and started singing along,
"You never take advice
Someday you'll pay the price
I know"

It was commentary on the game,
and perhaps on the season,
"I've seen it before
It happens all the time
You're closing the door"

Her sing-along trickled off then,
because it wasn't about love and the world,
just about the trials and tribulations
of coaching high-school girls, and
the all-too-human frustration
of trying to shape a successful team
from a mixed-bag of kids, talented and not,
all with more on our minds than volleyball.

Some lines were a cathartic release from
the sting of another loss,
"You're digging for gold
Yet throwing away,"
the lyrics accused even as they were
wrapped in a smile
shared across the table of burgers and fries.

By the end,
"But someday you'll pay
Cold as ice, you know that you are,"
the bitterness faded from Coach's voice.

She sipped the last of her soda,
shaking the red plastic glass of crushed ice
and smiled at us, at the team,
and started planning tomorrow's drills.




[Cold As Ice by Foreigner really did play in a small-town burger joint where I sat across from the volleyball coach, commiserating a loss. More than once.]