The Rider
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.
from Fuel: Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye, 1998
Boa Editions, Rochester, NY
Copyright 1998 by Naomi Shihab Nye.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission (click for permissions information).
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