A boy told me <br />if he roller-skated fast enough <br />his loneliness couldn't catch up to him, <br /> <br />the best reason I ever heard <br />for trying to be a champion. <br /> <br />What I wonder tonight <br />pedaling hard down King William Street <br />is if it translates to bicycles. <br /> <br />A victory! To leave your loneliness <br />panting behind you on some street corner <br />while you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas, <br />pink petals that have never felt loneliness, <br />no matter how slowly they fell.<br /><br />Naomi Shihab Nye<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-rider-3/
