The exercise:
Your prompt today: back in the saddle.
I rode my bike to work today for the first time in... a long time.
My legs will tell you all about it tomorrow.
Mine:
The blue has turned to grey,
So much dust has come this way.
The tires are as flat
As a run over ball cap.
But a quick wipe down here,
A bit of oil on the gears,
Some air pumped in the wheels,
And all those old wounds are healed.
We make the trip outside,
With but a small loss of pride,
And my smile starts to show
When the rubber meets the road.
The wheels turn with a creak,
My legs are feeling so weak,
But the sun is shining,
So I'm not really minding.
I believe it's true that you never forget falling off a bicycle... or something like that anyway. I may be mixing metaphors. I don't envy your legs, I've got a pretty good idea how they'll feel tomorrow! Oddly, my arms are feeling rather sore today, so my gym workout yesterday must have been a little more effort than I realised at the time.
ReplyDeleteI like the way your poem never actually tells us what you're talking about, but presents it so well that it's completely clear. I think the third verse is best, but it may be because of the impetus the poem has built by that point -- a bit like the bike itself!
Back in the Saddle
High above the world
That the farmer knows, that the farmer ploughs;
Here on the mountain passes,
Where the wind blows, where no man bows,
We live with our horses.
In this rarefied air
That's hard to breathe, it's hard to believe,
In Gods and Angels and ghosts.
Though it's hard to leave, when the wind does seethe,
It's back in the saddle for us.
Pursued by unquiet spirits,
We journey away, we quietly pray,
For the redemption long denied.
As the high men say, at the end of a cold day,
You get back in the saddle to ride.
I couldn't help but think of the usual little ditty Dusty sings in "The Lives of the Cowboys" sketches on Prairie Home Companion (which are easy enough to search, iffin you're curious)...
ReplyDelete- - - - -
Well here I am, back up in the saddle,
Finally free of that paddle-ball paddle;
my leg's n'longer broken, I'm no longer blue,
Probably helps that winter's gone, too,
whoop ee tie yie yo, get along, little doggie.
My partner sure missed me, or so does he say
All on his lonesome from September to May.
I'm glad to be back, but mostly because
back in the clinic didn't 'low yod'lin' at all
yodel-ley-ee, eee-yi hooo.
- - - - -
... alright, a little nonsensical, but it was fun anyway ^^
@Marc I can't wait to get my bike out again :D
ReplyDelete@Greg Love the internal rhyme. Especially "rarefied air".
"Back in the Saddle"
Rambunctious, pugnacious, pink beast
Thought it could make a broke girl of me.
With its steel-soldered ligaments
And that sly-sneering basket -
Ha!
What do I care of trees?
And grass is made for impacting.
My knees have always been green
'Cuz I like 'em that color.
Training wheels are for sissies.
Greg - thanks, the third verse is my favorite as well. I actually wrote the 3rd and 4th lines first, the rest of the poem came after :)
ReplyDeleteI like yours very, very much. It has a lovely, haunting quality to it.
g2 - fun is of the highest importance :)
I quite enjoyed reading that one and the second stanza in particular. Love those first two lines.
Archi - that last line was perfectly unexpected :)