New Bike Race
Let’s race the new bike
Bang out a solid five laps
When my legs blow up,
Cruise the last lap, enjoying
The trees, the trail, and the bike
Category: tanka
Daily Tanka: Lower Upper Midwest
Lower Upper Midwest
A cool, steady breeze
Betrays the high summer sun
Northfield, not da Yoop
A green lawn, not a stone beach
A corn sea, not the Big Lake
Daily Tanka: Construction Season II
Construction Season II
Without the chatter
Of the strolling customers,
Campus resounds with
The cheerfully annoying
Chirps of trucks going backwards
Daily Tanka: Construction Season I
Construction Season
The school year over,
Orange safety fencing now walls
The vacant sidewalks
And construction vehicles
Invade the empty green quads
Daily Tanka: No Email
No Email
If I receive no
Email all day, have I worked?
I’ve checked off many
To-dos, so I think I’ll keep
My knowledge-worker license
Daily Tanka: Aches and Pains
Aches and Pains
The physical pain
Of the day after the day
After a big race
Helps the body remember
It’s aliver than it was
Daily Tanka: Woods
Woods
The leaf-filtered sun
Heightens the scent of rampant
Photosynthesis
Red deadfall and white birchbark
Leap from the green to the eye
Daily Tanka: Cheq Checklist
Cheq Checklist
Old school, flow, man-made
Off camber, bench cut, boardwalk
Bridge, jump, rock garden
Hairpin, buttonhook, sweeper
Logover, rockover, berm
Daily Tanka: Loons
Loons
On Bear Point, I saw
Only gift shoppe bears
I didn’t see loons
But I heard them on the lake
Invisible dinosaurs
Daily Tanka: Reunion Weekend
Reunion Weekend
Reunion weekend
Campus tours are upside down
A few kids amid
A shuffling, sandaled swarm of
Retirees in college hats
Daily Tanka: Ballers
Ballers
Forty-some hours at
Basketball camp was enough
Time to be without
The girls, who came home happy,
Tired, sweaty, and more skillful
Daily Tanka: TNG
TNG
Tuesday night gravel
Means facing the hot headwind,
Soaking up the views
Into the river valley,
Then riding tailwinds back home
Daily Tanka: Uncertain Terrain
Uncertain Terrain
A bicycle ride
Is a rite of oneness with
Certain terrain and
With uncertain terrain too.
There is value in the act.
(After John McPhee, The Survival of the Bark Canoe)
Daily Tanka: Procrastinating
Procrastinating
The simplest pleasure
Of procrastinating is
Putting off pleasures:
Finishing this book, drinking
That beer, going for a ride
Daily Tanka: Imminent
Imminent
We went to the new
Brewery to drink good beers.
Before I had one
The owner said sorry for
Not installing the bike racks.