How to Ride a Motorcycle in the Middle of the Night

Look at you –

a silver, speeding bullet moving through the night,

a blinking red taillight mooning over the streets –

each mile its own Hail Mary as you zip atop

black asphalt and stone that blurs beneath your two feet – 

and you still don’t know what you’re racing towards. 

You squeeze your knees around that gun-metal gray tank 

and count all those lucky days you felt love and you knew it – 

your sister and you and all those birthday balloons 

after a year’s worth of depression came to a gentle end; 

you and all your friends on that early lakeside morning,

fingers skimming still waters, ripples skipping to the shore;

your mother hugging you once more and saying, 

it’s good to finally have you home – 

and you hold on close to that well-oiled machine

and choose to keep moving it forward. 

This is how you ride a motorcycle in the middle of the night –

passing all those ribbons of yellow streetlights on both sides, 

feeling the cold wind slip through your sleeves and onto bare skin,

the quick release of fear and then pleasure that changed you forever,

watching the soft glow of headlights pave your way ahead.