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Cycling is a mode of transport that has always been part of my life. To school, to work until I had a job that provided a car. Even then I cycled regularly locally and occasionally as a way of getting fit. That changed as I grew older in that I rarely used a bike. That is, until the arrival of Dublin Bikes, when they became a delightful means of transport around the city.

During this summer, I had two months of swimming daily in the sea and felt the better of it. So on a visit to my friend’s place in the Loire Valley I borrowed his bicycle to have a jaunt around forest paths. The following describes the results. Enjoy.

 Image by Peter H from Pixabay

Ah shure a small trip

around the forest tracks

with the borry of a bike

                                    wouldn’t that be great

Ah shure wasn’t the swim a day in the fine bright sea

for a whole two months enough of an exercise

to take a ride up around the gentle hills

But shure be-jaysus it wasn’t

the legs wobbled jammed

the chest hammered

                                    lungs a wheezing bagpipes 

Then shure didn’t gettin on and off

feel very dodgy 

the head spun it didn’t seem good at all

Feck shure didn’t the saddle

decide to drop without notice

and refuse to be fixed

Shit shure didn’t the cyclist

crouched and cramped

have to push himself

                                    the rest of the way back

Well shure he got there

in the end dragged himself home

panting and red

Peter Clarke

6^th September 2019