12.02.24
peddled pedals…
peddled pedals…
he pedaled a beeline to that clearing in town…
where folks from the grid go to gather around…he found a small fence post to lean his gray bike…
then walked active streets laid out somewhat alike…
his framework of steps drew a neighborhood map…
the diner’s side door sits two-faced behind backs…near a curb curling up toward a mediocre hotel…
lodging tongues in its lobby for gossip to spill…
built for wide pavements tall storefronts begin…
huge picture windows serve views and dish grins…a rear-entrance alley attracts thick smoking groups…
inhaling quick work breaks while escaping their coops…
a vacant foundation houses homemade type crowds…
mostly warming up benches to boil things down…they stared at his stride pausing audible words…
leaving facial expressions to loudly be heard…
in a faraway corner crawled a kid with blue chalk…
drawing hopscotch block lines while too busy to talk…until a mother jumped in ironically and comically to say…
“we gotta head for home now so you’ll still get time to play!”…
he bumped into an old friend from his yearbook’s black pen…
who’d taken roundabout shortcuts between now and then…and got lost as long distance didn’t find enough change…
so if time could keep quiet life might seem the same…
the general store counter stood cluttered but bare…
as yard sales nearby kept patrons outside in fresh air…that clearing he’d found now sat wrapped in cheap deals…
they’d even snatched up his jacket and peddled his wheels!…
hence his roadside fatigue chased footmarks farther away…
from the middle of a town’s happenings on a typical day…then milestones later a pickup pulled over to offer a lift…
with a tiny load in the truckbed and gray bike under it!…
…