206. SUDDEN AZALEAS

The Rider
by Naomi Shihab Nye

A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn't catch up to him,

the best reason I ever heard
for trying to be a champion.

What I wonder tonight
pedaling hard down King William Street
is if it translates to bicycles.

A victory! To leave your loneliness
panting behind you on some street corner
while you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas,
pink petals that have never felt loneliness,
no matter how slowly they fell.

SANG IN SHOWER: Alison Krauss’s “There Is a Reason” (for it all—which I sing an octave lower than this angel-voiced woman)

READING: The Epoch Times, which someone tossed in my driveway. It appears to be a Falun Gong publication.

BEST-OF SPAM: Smart brain: the subliminal software they tried to ban!