– 48 –

Girl on a bicycle

Pedalling across the busy intersection
as if she's been blown, not by
the discreet pushing of pedals

for she sits very straight in the saddle
her scarf wrapped around her throat
her books in the basket on the handlebars

as if music propels her: a blast
from trumpets, horns, tour buses
as they swirl just behind her back

held so straight as if she is a door
lifted out of a building by bicycle
a perfect and private door

or an arched window being carried
as preciously as a sheet of glass
down a street suddenly narrowed

by double-parked cars. And the music
follows her, muted but never pausing
for a second, her hair flying

a breeze lifting the scarf
the books juddering slightly
the strongly-pulsing pedals.