Bella Shepard

The Lone Cyclist

I was in quite a hurry, to where I don’t recall

It was something important or perhaps not at all

 

My life moved so fast through each minute, each hour

I must be on time, for time is the power

 

I consumed it, devoured each second, each day

In what I believed was the logical way

 

So in my hurry down a pastoral road

I spied a lone cyclist who saw me and slowed

 

I gave him a honk and drove by post haste

As he shook his head with an air of distaste

 

I looked in my mirror as saw him move on

I gave no second thought and then he was gone

 

But something had stirred me I’m not sure just why

Maybe that head shake was seared on my eye

 

The look of sheer pity for one who seems blind

To the life and the beauty that is so well defined

 

So many cyclists I’ve passed in my car

They’re a blur on the road I don’t care who they are

 

And yet for some reason I found his disdain

A bitter chastisement that caused me some pain

 

Why should I feel bad when my life is so good?

Why should I feel guilty in all I’ve pursued?

 

And there in the back of my mind I did hear

The cyclist’s voice so loud and so clear

 

Only a fool will rush their through life

And never give thought to the joy and the strife

 

For they go hand and hand and allow us to feel

All that we are and all that is real

 

I pondered this thought as I sped on my way

What a beautiful place, what a beautiful day

 

Why have I never seen all this before?

The trees and the pastures, the seas and the shores

 

I’ve been many places that should have been seen

For the breathtaking beauty, the scenes so serene

 

Instead I’ve made work and success my life’s goal

The riches and status that diminished my soul

 

I pulled off the road and put on the brake

The quiet was soothing, I sat in the wake

 

Of a powerful feeling that had come over me

I would wait for the cyclist in the shade of this tree

 

When eventually I saw him, I knew he saw me

For he sped up his pace and stopped short of the tree

 

I rolled down my window and watched as he moved

Very slowly towards me as caution behooved

 

He leaned down beside me and gave me a “Hi”

With a smile so delightful, a twinkle in his eye

 

“It’s amazing” he said” How many speed past,

You’re the first one who’s stopped but I hope not the last”

 

So the cyclist and I had a wonderful chat

About life, about love, about this thing and that

 

When we had finished and each gone our way

I felt in my soul the importance of that day

 

For little did I know, that the cyclist would be

The catalyst of change that happened in me