Big Belly Mon
Rolling on the balls of your clack clack clacks
You wobble back to front like a quack quack quack
Latex feathers and a headdress that don’t crack crack crack
Big belly mon
Leg muscles bulge through your slack slack slacks
Teeth white and straightened with no plaque plaque plaque
So tell me why your tummy is so fat fat fat
Though you ride ride ride
Big belly mon
Submitted by P.M.
Road Dream
I rode away thinking of what I need
I stopped at the beach knowing what I forgot
Days are filled, I don’t ride
Memories flood, the dreams melting
Our emotions as I talk silently to you
During the day leaning against old
Knowledge.
Hearing you in the distance
Leaves me standing as standing
Before the choice again
To renew each other a new
Then I will ride and remember
I love you.
Vacation
The vacation
Is time with no purpose
No need to wake early and pedal
The bike stays put
Easy to make excuses
And then force Sunday
Outing and feel the slump
Of my muscles and watch
The group pull away.
Glad to know my limits
I push myself
To be ready to get back to
The business of commuting
Wheel III
Will
He
Evade
Eyes
Lonely
When
Her
Ear
Escapes
Loosely
Wistful
Heaven
Errors
Elongate
Love
Wheel Commute
When I wake to the wind in my face
Heaving my breath and my
Eyes water to the chill
Each time I am glad to have a purpose
Leaving for work, the morning dark.
Simple Bike
Years ago three thousand tons
Would move with wind
Human sweat, toil and sails
A ship would ply the oceans.
Then the engine came called horse power
One hundred of them would push a barge
Ten thousand tons to wait for tide
And make its way no matter wind.
Now I ride and sweat and toil
Pushing against the wind with 1/5th a horse
And 5 times the speed against the wind
Carrying a pound of water.
Every angle, every lee, I feel to gain
Some respite from the slog of gale
Yet smile and marvel at this
Contraption called a bike.
The bike can carry its motor
Faster than we care to think
Much easier to ride some hide
Or use gas toward some repast
And never sweat the wind, or rain
Or snow. Hiding behind glass
A pedal that never turns,
You yell to those outside, never smiling.
The effort of motion calms a spirit
Each mile is measured by link
By stroke, by turn of wheel, by
Spoke, by breath and beat of heart
The bike lives under me as I
Live under the spell
I love to eat and welcome
The fair wind home.
Speed
Speed
An illusion
A trap
Precise to a number
Means what
What does
How I do care
When I miss my train
Not speed I need
But time
Blinky Lights
That blinky light so dinky
Keeps me squinty
When I see you across the road
I’ll give you wider berth
For such narrow girth
As a bike at night on the road
Those blinky lights at night
Flashy pattens make a sight
Like random fire flies exploding
In the twilight. I am glad
To see those blinky lights you’ve had
So I don’t run you over
Tire Time
The tire pops
I go flop
And watch, wave
The group go on
I sit on the patch
Of gass to patch
A tire to mend
My ways
Of riding too long
They are thread bare
Where treads to be
And Happy am I
to have a pump.