About A Bike Race

An elbow in your ribs wakes you from
The trance of speed and focus and the sound of wind as it rushes past
Drives adrenaline through veins and brain
As tires grip a corner like teens holding phones
You push the panic back
21 corners left in the mad crush of riders
You breathe.

Teams start to move through the scrum
Pushing towards the front as they charge toward the sprint.
Wheels touch! Shouts and screams
The dull thud of bikes and bodies meeting pavement
Your bike leaps and bucks over bottles
Trying to unseat you
14 corners left in the wild churn
You breathe.

The pace shifts as nerves settle
Leaving only speed and power
You seek your rival clinging to their wheel as vision narrows
As breathe comes up short
As corners fly past
The race thins to a line, no one moves
Everyone battles themselves
Fights the pain, the exhaustion, the burn in their legs
10 corners left, 10 corners left to go.
You breathe.

A bell rings, the final lap
The world is the ride ahead
All your eyes can see is
The blur of kit and wheels
Riders slide off the back
Riders rush off the front
Only to burn out and drop to the side
The group shrinks
The pace increases
Your legs scream
Your lungs burn
Your grip tightens
You hold
On
You breathe.

Your senses awake as you hit the last turn
You survive
Your rival stands to catch the wheel
In front of them
You stand to stay with them
They sit
You sit
300 yards
Their final teammate sprints
Your legs don’t fail you
200 yards
Your rival accelerates
They stretch away like elastic about to break
You snap them back
You breathe.

Three things exist
The line
Your bike
Your rival.
You feel
Hope
Rage
Exhaustion
You forget to breathe
100 yards
You rise
Legs fire like boosters pushing toward space
Every muscle tenses
Fingers and arms pull
Back strains
You pull into the wind
50 yards
Overtaking
Inch by inch
Wheel by wheel
Yards vanish like last nights dreams
The line!
You fling bars forward stretching for the line
You look left
and see your rivals wheel
cross the line
You breathe.

This was written for a beat poetry event in my congregation. Here is a video of the performance with backing band.