That high-side twist

In a land beyond fences

And a time beyond now

I rode the line

In the gravel

With the press of the

Heat dragging all

Into sweat and shimmer.

I rode the pencil traced

Line in the scree

A full throttled skip

Across the corrugations

More air than earth

And the thread

Drawn thin across the barren.

I rode a long time

Hours of pitched onward

Longing through the desolate

Locked into a pledge

A smooth ride the trade

For riding the line

More bird than bike.

And then the line, she left me

Fading into a slow motion flick

Of the back wheel in big arcs

Across the scree, loose hopes

Of salvage replaced by

Another swing of the

Twisted, and she bit.

My bike became a

Mad tumbling thing that

I kicked to get away from,

Wrestled, wrangled and

Hit the earth

Waiting for the crunch

That never came.

That twisting, bucking

Inhumanity never got me

Though she tried

The tumbling steel

Kicked clear, with my

Instinct to survive.