Repeat the cycle…

James Callahan

Nov 30

Davey and I spent the days riding our bikes
from the block where we lived to the park
to play baseball to the swimming pool to meet
more friends where everyone gathered, and
back home when the street lights came on to
repeat the cycle the next day and the next;
with our gloves slid over the handle bars,
towels slung over our shoulders, zigging and
zagging from pavement to gravel to sidewalk
to grass to garages, exhausted and straight
to the refrigerator until scolded away by
mothers well-prepared for the hunger and
dirt and sweat and laundry and stories of
young boys, only interrupting with short
questions of Is your bike put away? and
Did you win? which didn't matter all that
much – Win at what? at riding our bikes or
never running out of air in our lungs or at
a baseball game meant to be played but
never really ending or wearing the same
pair of blue jeans the most days in a row
until your Mom sneaks into your room after
you've collapsed into bed to live another day.