Breaking Away, Excel, and Solstice Yellow

By Mary Croy

Breaking away

The day began with a bike break down

front wheel flat, clack, clack, clack as I passed

the woman with the suitcase

breaking away-that was a movie I liked 

or maybe I had a crush on Daniel Stern

and I loved cheering for cutters

those bad boys of the proletariat

I got air for the tires and was on my way, 

fingers sticky from sautéed plastic

handlebars

the gears slipped

I startled swore as I glanced the seventh gear break into five

kept my balance

navigating Willy Street, not able to glance over my shoulder

at oncoming, hoping the idiot in the convertible

didn’t suddenly decide

to break in on my bike

Bakery surrounded by flowers

breaking bread with my cats

breaking our leisurely morning into pieces

struggling with a soggy sandwich

dredged in spice

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Excel

We’ve all learned to live with uncertainty

yet we need to ignore it on the job

check the figures, does D2 match L2?

if not, you got a problem

If reality was a spreadsheet, we’d hop over the thin lines

take a look around

call for a function that could make us multiply

or divide this table into 1060 pixels

Yet we know or don’t

you can never quite place an atom whizzing around your room

measure the speed, but be uncertain of place

pin it down but lose the moment

The only certainty is that this piece of space spinning rainbows

this bouncing tumbling moment

has energy

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Solstice Yellow

Yellow is the feel of peaches

skin       fuzzing      yielding

velour fruit

upended by the core reality

of a strong pit

Yellow is the scent of dandelions

and melted butter

it tastes sweetness and burn of whiskey

on a cold night

The sound of a hornet is yellow

scaring you out of a car

on your way home

The silent trickle of sunlight, at noon, on June 21st

yellow looks for its shadow

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