I should have bought that old bike
and cycled it home
cycled it home to the Seventies
when the Chopper was king
lunchbox and toolkit in my saddlebag
brakes in good working order.
A Raleigh bike from Nottingham
must have left the factory ages ago
when Alan Silitoe was writing
Saturday Night and Sunday morning
I could study Ordinance survey maps
and cycle down to Nottingham
see the D.H. Lawrence Museum in Eastwood
I could pedal to freedom
with that old bike - my time machine!
Past the 3-day week, power cuts
and candles, the Miner's strike
I could park my bike outside No.10
and speak to Harold Wilson
or Tony Benn
For fifty quid I could ride again
with derrailleur gears and a dynamo
follow the road and the country code
to the land of foxes and squirrels
along the Kennet and Avon
the Forth and Canal canal
down memory lane to a life
restoring youth hostel.
If you had the bike built into a time machine, you'd be able to visit all the exciting points in history. Thankfully we have our minds to read and explore what history can teach us.
I love this, Teddy. Your verses "speak" to me. I am an avid cyclist, having cycled well over 3,000 times down this mountain and back up here again since I first started in 1998. It's only a 12-kilometer ride but coming back up here does require effort. Lol! Thank you for sharing your memories. Love and peace...
I LOVED this poem Teddy Moon! I have been riding bicycles all of my life. As a young boy, my dad could not afford a Schwinn bike so he bought me an off brand. Still, it served me well and I loved riding it all over the neighborhood. When I lived in England (served three years at Royal Air Force, Alconbury (near Huntington). I had a three speed Raleigh which I used almost every day. Then back to the states and I biked all over Florida in a English racer. Then I served three years in Japan and another Raleigh caught my eye. I used it get me to work daily and won a Gold medal at the annual championship 37K bike race in Yokota Air Base, Japan with a borrowed helmet (I entered the race at the last minute). Back to the states in Colorado I purchased his and her TREC mountain bikes which we conquered "Garden of the Gods" in Colorado Springs. Now semi-retired in South Western Florida I have a Cannondale all terrain bike which I use every day I can even to go grocery shopping. I try to keep up with college kids since I work part-time in a local university. It's all good clean FUN! Cheers!
David Hightower’s lyrically expansive meditation on the whims of fate and the unpredictability of the human condition fill the pages of THE HANGING MAN DREAMS with thrilling music and mesmerizing imagery. Hightower’s richly infused voice echoes the e
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Regis
Love ya!
Jane