night ride

Do you recall
   the first joys of bicycling
      in dark of night,

Guided only by faint stripings
   of the old county road,

Streaking through warm summer air
The scent of straw & cinders--

Do you recall
   the animal joy
      of hair-streaming abandon

Plunging down summer hills
   into grassy cool
      frog-and-cricket bottoms,

Gears clicking
   to pump
      the coming rise?