Biking
by and published in Edition Eleven of Pomegranate
A clink, a chink,
and I whoosh down the street,
dodging and zigzagging
out of rockshot,
with my mudflaps
cleaner than their faces.
The rain slits my face
and my brakes groan—
I love it when houses
start to stumble into vacancies
like my dad’s thinning hair:
it means the lonely hill will
be expecting me at the end
of this valley of an alley
and I
am nine
and she
is ancient
and this
is as far as I’ll ever get.
I squeeze the handlebars and try
to quench their shudder,
but the dents in the asphalt
confirm what my heart stutters.
mohsen jabbari
Mohsen Jabbari was born in 1988 in Zanjan, a city in northwestern Iran. He is a self-taught English speaker and is currently studying English Translation at the University of Zanjan. He wants to go for English literature at M.A. He’s won no awards or honors so far, partly because he’s been serious about writing poems for only a year now and partly because there are no poetry workshops, contests, competitions, …whatsoever in English in his country! He enjoys long walks in the snow, the music by Secret Garden (an Irish/Norwegian band), and spending time with his better half.