This month, Molly challenged the Inklings to “Write a love note to something or someone or some place. Go big or go small!” She gave us several suggestions to use as mentor poems and shared that her real motivation was to “look at the world through a lens of love.”
There are so many things in this world that I love: my family, trees, birds, books, knitting. The list is long (how lucky am I?) I even considered writing about the kitchen table! (I will come back to this idea soon.) In the end, though, time ran out and I found myself searching my notebook for anything that filled the bill. This poem, written last summer, isn’t exactly a love note, but I sure did love this bike.
A New Bike
I stumble off the bus into another summer
confined to our dusty driveway
on my rusty red bicycle.
Suddenly, I see a shiny new bike waiting.
I scream with joy, drop everything and run.
“You’re old enough to ride on the road.”
Mom’s words echo as I hop onto the silver seat
and pedal away.
Smooth asphalt glides beneath me.
I’m a blur of sparkly green paint,
blending into the kaleidoscope of
summer leaves.
Streamers – a rainbow of red, yellow,
blue – fly out from the handlebars
like a flag, proclaiming my independence.
This bike and I are going places.
© Catherine Flynn, 2025
Margaret Simon has the Round Up today at Reflections on the Teche. After you read her love note to silence, visit my fellow Inklings to read their love notes.
Heidi @ My Juicy Little Universe
Linda @ A Word Edgewise
Molly @ Nix the Comfort Zone
(Mary Lee is on a brief hiatus)
Reading to the Core 
What a delight! I have a similar memory of taking off on a bike. This is a perfect love poem to that moment. I can imagine that blur of sparkly green paint. Wonderful!
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I love the image of the streamers flying as you fly on your new bicycle. Thanks for posting.
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That seems like a love poem to me! Your excitement comes through. I especially like: Smooth asphalt glides beneath me.
I’m a blur of sparkly green paint,
blending into the kaleidoscope of
summer leaves.
Such movement! And the triumph in the final stanza.
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You captured the childhood thrill of a new bike and independence and summer freedom so beautifully in this poem, Catherine! I love that first line, “I stumble off the bus and into another summer” and then how everything shifts to pure joy! I also really love the stanza that Tabatha noted, too, and what a great ending line!
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Pure joy! Your beginning and ending lines are perfection. I especially like the placement of the final line by itself. I would say this qualifies as a love note. Thanks for sharing it.
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Oh! What lovely music, Catherine, in your first stanza, all those weary schwas:I stumble off the bus into another summer confined to our dusty driveway on my rusty red bicycle.And then the sparkly kaleidoscope of rainbow proclamation! Great poem, a love note to independence.
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I can feel your joy — and remembered the thrill of getting my blue bicycle. Fab image of streamers on the handlebars! Perfect final line!!
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I love how the energy and pace builds in your poem till the streamers fly from the handlebars. Boy do I remember that feeling. When I was around 12, I would ride no hands around the block after dinner and occasionally stop at the street light and sing Memories from Cats at the top of my lungs. It makes me laugh to think of it. Great poem.
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Your poem brings back memories! That last line really hit home!
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Catherine, it is wonderful reading your blog post. Your love for a new bike gives high energy to the beginning of summer. Thanks for the images you created. Happy end-of-summer.
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