(c) 2021 Jan C. Johnson

Lord, I’m setting out to ride.
Go with me and be my guide.
Keep me safe from angry dogs,
Poison snakes and feral hogs,

Yellowjacket on my shades,
Gravel up the steepest grades,
Headwinds and torrential rains,
Roadways blocked by poky trains,

Traffic in the neighborhoods,
Sasquatch in the deep back woods,
Drivers texting (how insane!),
Dually pickups in my lane,

Guinea hens that run afoul,
Rednecks passing with a growl,
Sunburn, potholes, cows that roam…
Maybe I should just stay home.

… Naaah.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, I’ve actually seen / experienced pretty much every one of the items listed. The feral hog was road kill that I passed years ago. To this day, whenever I ride that road I look for escape options, just in case. But I really did have a yellowjacket stow away on my sunglasses. When I tried to flick it off with my safely gloved hand, it fell on my arm, stinger-first.

And yes, I often do pray for safety when I start a ride. Last time I did, my requests got so specific that I laughed at myself and started composing this poem in my head. I threw in everything I could think of.

But you know… if I let every potential obstacle or hazard stop me, I’d never do anything. Hence the poem’s last, short line.

Thanks for reading!

Tailwinds,

Jan