the ride

i will search for god on the back of a Harley,
with two wheels chewing up asphalt and the wind
blowing through the empty tunnels in my brain.
i will find my place in the world, or find
that i have no place in the world. i will find
my god on the back of a Harley, or i will die trying.

i will find myself on the back of a Harley,
some indistinct day in the future. the first phase
of my life is nearing completion, a quarter century
down the highway of my life. i will have no use
for walls, putting myself out in the open air
for the first time ever, and letting my voice
be heard. for the first time ever, my engine
will be heard.

i will find my love while perched upon my seat
on the back of a Harley. she will be a tan
Mexican girl, with bright eyes and long, black,
flowing hair. she will have the sweetest smile,
and she will smell like the ocean at low tide,
with the sun sinking down over the watery
horizon line. together we will ride out,
under a moon which is full of nothing
but promise.

i will teach myself everything that nobody
managed to get through my thick head,
sitting serenely like a leather-clad Buddha
on the back of a Harley. i will teach myself
a new religion, a new kind of physics, a new
kind of thermodynamics. i will finally be able
to align all the planets in my favor, for
fortune smiles on those who fend
for themselves.

this is a promise to myself, and this is
a promise to my maker. i will not remain
tamed, not forever. i will not
walk in the same circles, not forever.
i will scream, i will love, i will live
and when i am ready, i will die.

i will do it all, on the back of my Harley.