A GOOD DAY TO RIDE

'Tis still Winter here on the Coast,
And the morning air is cool.
I've had my coffee and toast,
And don't have to teach in school!

What is an old fella' to do today?
I know what I'd like to do!
I'll just come right out and say
I'd like to take a cycle ride with you!

If I had a Triumph or Gold Wing,
I'd crank her up right away
Just to hear her engine sing,
And I'd take a ride today!

Down along the Gulf of Mexico,
Where the white caps are showing,
That's where we'd surely go,
Even though the wind is a blowin'!

Put a thermos of hot coffee in the bag.
Even a sandwich or two,
Passing a Porsche and a Jag,
Just the two of us, me and you!

Cool days are made to ride,
For myself and my bride.
Just watch the miles fly by
With the sun up in the sky!

My bride is seventy, and I am seventy-four,
We'd rather ride the cycle together,
Than to have a 'vette with four on the floor,
Even in this Winter's cooler weather!

Dreams can sometimes come true,
If memories are allowed to rise,
From their hiding places with you,
'Specially if no clouds are in the skies!

So, come along with me,
And riding we will go.
Not along the shore of the sea,
But along the Gulf of Mexico!

Just the two of us together,
Like we used to be,
Riding in Winter's cooler weather,
With all the sights to see!

To all the cyclists before me today,
Talking man to man,
If you'd like to ride along the way,
Right now, just raise yo' hand!

Sure is fun to fly a plane,
Or ride a cycle in the rain,
But even more fun
To make a run,
In cool weather,
Or in the sun
Along the Mississippi Coast
After having your
Coffee and your toast!

When you men grow old as me,
Don't give up cycle ridin'
Along the coast or the sea,
And never, never go into hidin',
For that, a pity would be.
Just crank up your bike,
And ride along with me!

If you look around,
You'll find an old grey-haired man,
Ridin' a ghostly Triumph or Honda,
Somewhere in the 'wild blue yonder'!

Or if you pass the graveyard in Vancleave,
Early in the cool of morning, or eve,
Listen as you go by and you may hear,
The sound of Caffey's cycle in your ear!

And if that sound is the purrin' of a Honda,
He' cranking it to ride up yonder,
Where the sun never sets and its never cool,
And where an old rider is not an old fool!

Youthful days are soon set aside,
When the bikes have all gone to rust,
And the cyclists have no wheels to ride,
And their youthful bodies now turned to dust!

So, this sad tale must now end,
Lest boring, leaves no friend,
I'll have another coffee and toast,
And leave tire tracks all along the Coast!

©Copyright March 6, 2001 by C. Douglas Caffey

The writer wrote this poem about a month before he got a bike, after not riding for some sixteen years. Now he can go riding along the Coast after having his coffee and his toast, yet without his wife behind him, for she just had open heart surgery. And since the writing he is now seventy-five and the wife is seventy-one. Time marches on!