As many of you know, poetry calls out to me often. I love reading other’s poetry, both older work and newer. At times I find the urge to write unstoppable and so a poem, or something like a poem emerges. Here’s one I wrote a while back. The exercise bike is still with me. On this snowy day, seems like it’s time for a ride!
Ode to a Faulty Exercise Bike
Go ahead—sit there, empty and dull
your fancy electronics failed
waiting, always patient,
for someone to pedal you lively,
to click the screen buttons for
higher or lower resistance,
give you that imaginary ride
across shadowed Appalachian Trail,
Tuscany’s leafy byways,
through Acadia’s crags and folds,
down the long slopes of the Poconos,
or weaving in and out the shoppers
along Henry Street in Dublin. You
wait,
so quiet, so plastic
so metal, pulsing out guilt and need
begging me, come,
let’s share our imperfection