Bored

Staring into a flickering candle

In and out of consciousness

I didn't notice that it went out

Or that Colonel Custer died

With his Seventh Cavalry

Too many times have I fallen asleep

And dreamt from the prompt of a first sentence

Tying words together; lost cause to cost lost to...

Jackson, Polk and Testa sipping tea

Fingers curled, talking of platypus.

Oh, did the candle go out?

I must get up, go around, do something!

My house is old, and I've lived there all my life.

I've done everything there is to do

Except climb through the ventilation

Oh wait, nevermind.

Something I haven't done, at least for a while

And I took off the turquoise bike.

(I'm liking the shadow under my hammies)

So off I go, riding with that sense

of pride, being able to do tricks:

Ride English style, one leg resting

Faster than the rush hour cars

Stand on the pedals

Forget the bike and the bumps of the old road

And pretend to fly! 

The closest I might ever get.

But going on a road always has a danger;

There lay a body in the road.

The wing flapped once then stopped, stuck ridged in the air

Like a very bad dream and a sickening stomach.

I stopped the bike, throwing my leg over while it still rolled

A smooth landing, unlike the bird.

I kicked out the pedal stand

Slow only because I thought it dead

Thoughts blooming in my head

(There are these indiscreet things that / will always bring you back to a child / ish way of thinking, of finding / those simplicit reactions, like chemicals / this was one of those)

As I came closer, appearing deformed in his black eye

I took off my flannel on that unusually temperate day

Wrapped him up and balanced his limp neck in hands

He blinked! He blinked! Oh thank you G- oh but wait

He's going to die.

Oh, but it's only cacti

I took it out on the side of the road

And he didn't even stir, only blinked

He flew out, free from the desert's claws

Only to crash on the other side of the road on the front of his neck

sitting, as if broken

I crossed and picked him up in my jacket

He looked at me with his infected eye

Old lady voice from an SUV: don't leave your bike in the road, someone will run over it, hun.

He gazed at her with his little black eye.

I gazed at her with my little black eye.

I let the dove fly out of my hands and nodded.

As soon as she drove away, the bird crashed again

his neck the landing pad

but at least he was safe under a dwarf tree.

I took my bike and continued.

I forgot the bird after turning twice into the honeycomb streets.

I flew down a steep hill, raised high above the bike.

I was almost flying, above the trees and through hotels

but never very high.

Oh, did the candle go out?