Suburban cycle route (a poem)

Suburban Cycle Route

the pedals spin with a sound like crickets

and the crickets sing like a ball to wickets;

above, fruit bats circle like vultures

while distant vultures turn men to sculptures.

//

this dad and his daughter spin their wheels quicker

and as speed reigns, the cockatoos snicker

at the sun flailing in the sky like tongues in pools;

not long now till they see how language unspools.

//

not far from a future they can’t yet know;

still oblivious, the man will not slow;

they pedal along as the sun sings through their hair

and the trees glisten on the road to nowhere.

//

Originally published by Hey Neighbour's Neighbourhood Press.