The Cycle of Life by Jonathan Spencer
The cycle of Life
some thoughts on cycling and the passing of the seasons can be found here…
Cycle of life.
I can think back to that old three wheeler
Flaky red paint and squeaky white saddle
Pedaling along tarmaced pavements:
This chariot, this motorcycle, this car this jet
Yet, although three had sat there before me
It still raced down the hill
(Where once I narrowly missed an old lady and flew over a garden wall)
And there I am running in to that face at the kitchen window
All breathless and eyes ablaze to tell her mummy I love you.
One night I woke to find a feast
Laid out upside down on the dining table
My Dad brushing on blue paint, a real bycycle..like new
The stabilisers, learning balance then no stabilizers, then no skin on my thigh
The world rushed, no sped, no pedaled by.
The first to have a chopper in our street, -remember them-
£19 11s 11d, how my parents must have saved
Green paint, cow horn handlebars and motorcycle seat.
We were all mad motorcyclists then,
Freewheeling with our friends
Under the almond blossom snow and racing
From the Spinney to the Grove.
And finally cycling proficiency.
Now I have a mountain bike
with only mountains in my mind to climb
My mother a face at a distant kitchen window
300 miles away
My father in a place past all my pedaling
He never lived to appreciate the pace my children rattle
Down the narrow South street paving
But still the wheels revolve and pedals spin
I know when Brakes are needed and still oil the chain
and hand on the teaching to my children
of the cycle of life.
Author -Jonathan spencer-


















