bicycle...

'they' say "it's like riding a bike"...
...you never forget...

yet
I don't even remember learning how to ride a bike

but somehow, somewhere along the way I did

I do remember my 11th birthday
getting the only birthday gift...
I actually ever remember receiving...
out of all the many I'm sure were lavished upon me
as a young child!?!?

I remember the night
the whole family piled into the car after dinner
and drove down to the Schwinn Store
I remember agonizing over whether the green one on the floor was the right color?!?
but somehow it didn't even matter
it was a banana seat bike
with metallic fleck paint
and hand brakes
I could not wait to ride around our cul de sac

I don't know when the novelty wore off
or whatever happened to that green metallic fleck schwinn...
I think it probably faded away about the same time
this tall dark young man
wandered down the street where I lived

(insert photo here!?!? once I find it)

as the summer days of oh so long ago
grew into years
he distracted me with many new and interesting things

and our little distractions
soon became attracted to things with wheels

I don't remember teaching them to ride their bikes
but somehow they too learned to ride

new Schwinns and new fangled fixies



their wheels have taken them far and wide

and I will never forget
the morning
I watched this little one
drive down the little Ziegelhausen road to work
and by the start of the next day
was presented with his own little distraction





and this little distraction too
is attracted to these things with wheels

and soon he too will master these bicycles
on his own journey
far and wide