What I saw on your face when you thought no one was looking

There’s a gentle beauty that pours forth from your face when you’re turning the pedals,

A happiness that is so warm and engulfing that it beckons us all, smilingly,

To throw off the leaden suits and ties and business blouses of our daily grind,

A happiness accompanied by a vaguely risqué nod that telegraphs an invitation to skinny-dip

In the alluring, sometimes cool, sometimes fiery hot, always rewarding pool of lycra and rubber

And carbon and shiny mirrored lenses hiding laughter and truth not even for a second,

Of flexing thighs and straining calves and beautiful sweating muscles that are driving us onward to the summit,

Or plunging us with our hearts in our throats at a million miles an hour through woods and rocks and ravines and ocean overlooks,

Or just easily rolling through the wind, the sun, and the hurting blue sky or the gently bucking pavement of the Parkway,

Knotted to one another and to the surging throng of bodies

As each of us shares and explores and pushes that invisible envelope binding us together,

Even as we strain with bursting chests to bend beyond the speeding world’s edge

And fly, faster, alone.

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