Along the Saturday morning road,
the lean, sun dried leather vectors
of pavement and gashes of curb water
fallen free of bladed unwatched lawns,
they are out in force.
They run their bellies sweaty,
they pause on hilltops to catch breaths
and whisper love songs to their limbs.
They stare down the straights and
tell themselves they are making
progress. Tell themselves they are
beams of light tilting hard against
flat sprayed modernity and
the fattening shackles of success.
They fire their musket balled calves
against the grades assaulting their bicycles
worth more than the cars
they ride the sidewalks on to avoid
and feel alive
as far as they can know living to be.
I try to keep straight. Try to stay out of their way
as they rally their spirits in the rising
unconditioned heat of breaking daylight.
I try not to laugh, my feet touching lips of pavement
unforgiving and familiar as the hairs on my knuckles,
while I see them revel in triumphs
now too small for me to notice
more than a hyena
would make a particular note
of a light snack of field mice pups.
I applaud them briefly. Go getters all,
while I log my 11th mile for the day on
shoes whose tread has more in common
with a baby's ass than a tire.
I cannot remember the last time I understood the problem
of eating good and sitting in one place so long
that I had to set aside time
to make sure I worked my body hard enough
to stay one step ahead
of those who would eat my flesh
if the world ever came down
around our ears
and pushing numbers and papers
was as meaningless as it sounded.
The morning light sings
like a blade against a sharpening stone
and I thrill with the fineness of my own edge
chirping back to her harmonic.
We have been here. We know each other so well
after these weeks, months, and years of
hardening musculature, bone, and joint.
These are my hills, my chiseled ridges, and
time blasted valleys. Along the Saturday morning road
the cattle have come
for their hour long taste of difficulty and
"I can do this", and a slice of discomfort,
and I will allow it, partly because it is
so fucking funny, but also because
without the cattle
there is no meat.
