These hardened streets, gashed with serrated pot holes
Asperous asphalt
Soon to be softened and slippery
From fresh winter snows
I streak a sliver through the city’s congealed veins
Heart attack, clot, but numb to my own pain
Wash it white, tint-rose so colourful but still
I’m traveling here alone*
Unwanted passenger
bleeds my brain
Driving me insane;
a taxi I never called
แนปber
แนปber alles; bike lane, pushed
aside
pedal on, pedal on;
We’ve lost community to a phone
Reaching out, reaching into that empty space, that void
in me
The invisible wall maps my ride and counts my steps
Drugged and dragged along by platitudes
But they make no bloody difference
No hope exuded in hollow eyed words,
Eye contact, topped with tar…black pupil-retinal mud
makes the darkness blindingly bright
I need to travel off the common path
And not be led where these roads go
The grids with untimely ends and capricious curves…
The need of a flock to follow unneeded, and takes us
To the same places over and over again
What’s the point of life when
You feel dead?
“We find ourselves
in the same old mess,
Singing drunken
lullabies”
Simply stated, no simple solve
What’s prescribed seems to sicken me more than heal
Nothing is genuine; it’s no
Wonder we are lost to how we feel
I feel weak, I feel small and powerless
Set my compass, but stuck on the determined road
Salt stings the cuts and cracks and road rash
Black tar and asphalt stain my lungs and the acidic rain
eats at my soul
The salt water streaming from my eyes;
An ocean, an eternity, but not rain
Briny bites the cuts and cracks and road rash- I do my
own stunts
I want to ride my bike with you
Off the main drag, the beaten path that’s beat me down
Or a canoe:
To be flowing through the river’s blood
As it feeds the earth with natural wonder
Feeds my soul, makes me whole
Lessens the impact of my mental load
Erode my jagged edges and smooth me out
Skipping upon the waves like a water walker
Even though I know
The river’s flow will never cease
A tegument of ice may distort our passage-
To inhale your warm breath; exhale and dissipate like
smoke into the ether
Of the endless dimensions of universe and soul;
See it blend and absorb into the greater whole
A contradiction to these pending winter winds
Winter is always warmer in a photograph or film
This film that coats my eyes and emotions
I want to spin this into a positive
Propel by my chain, not tethered
Away, the big yellow taxi,
I need you to ride with me.
