Saturday 16 August 2014

So Push

One o’ clock, North Yorkshire
and we cycle hard - cogs
chuckling into spurs and chains
on-and-around sprockets

oblivious to tops-of-trees parading
front-to-back and the Howgills
rolling more slowly
in parallax and majesty

until we hit a low dip
and start a long climb
feeling breath and thighs hot.

Looking far away to the left
(in a miracle of trigonometry)
a far mountain rises mysteriously
like in a cardboard theatre.

Pushing and climbing, an earth-top also climbs.
Cycling more easy, our summit stays and shivers;
a fine old miracle in time.

Now the road descends and our peak slo-mo’s
away; no longer fighting gravity
but sinking like a drowsy head
obscured by trees and foothills, green.

And it helps me feel the sun
and how she seems, every day, to light and rise
imperious - and how, if we all freewheel,
eventually her rays maybe wouldn’t
be bothered to rise either, and sink. A sigh.
So Push.



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