RIDING TANDEM

Immortality is a wheel
we're screwed to
the axle of
its tree
of seasons
and held by the spokes
of its word
that holds us to the rim
gives us the balls of bearing
in our greasy refrain.


I'll go on lying like this
muttering around the house
building these little machines of thought
that go thought thought thought
like a flat tire
because I can't stand
marble still.


My wife changes gears like the moon.
Just when I think
she's the one foot
on the other petal
she tells me she's tired.
Right when I point at a hill
she says, "But a unicycle."
When I want a divorce
I take off the chain
and go nowhere for a while.


Come back home to link our hips
to our spokes again
and find myself mesmerized
at how I can be coasting in tenth
while she's gasping in first
and visa versa


Two wheels
on the same frame
going the same place
having nothing in common
but this garden lovely
go round ground
and the heavenly sky
we rely upon.