SADDLE
Mikey Swanberg
I am glad I lived long enough to see
that Mercury was right
and that beautiful asses zoom by
all day on French and Italian bikes
glad to find myself enjoined
to their cause
so let me tell you
something lucky
I woke up feeling sympathy
for someone I once called
a selfish prick
I bought beer at one corner
and then stopped by another
to buy beer from the man I like more
alone-ness can be practiced
same as the tuba
and it blows
a horny note a fog
horn off the coast
of where we stood
before we stood together
hearing the whir of another's wheels
and the easy breathing
that silent practiced focus
on the route and on the road
that comes along with every moving on
Mikey Swanberg holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and is the author of the chapbook Zen and the art of Bicycle Delivery (Rabbit Catastrophe Press). He is a recipient of the Jane Vance prize for poetry, and lives in Chicago.