No matter that my quadriceps are sore,
my back complaining, or my shoulders tight:
I want to ride that bicycle some more,
today. I want to feel again that light
beneath the canopies of shaded green,
that cool into the breeze against my skin.
I want to lose my knees, in air so clean
to breathe it draws the light from outside in.

I’ll haul against the handlebars to climb.
I’ll swoop into the curve of gravity
as down I coast to rocket on the right-
of-way beneath the elevated tracks. Sublime
the quick sensation is, of energy
transmuted to my pedals from the light.

(I have tried now and then, since 1995, to lose the extra beat in the 12th line. But I continue to love it as is.)