the story of excellence or greatness--have you touched it

i want to write about bicycles
the intricate mechanics of ten-speeds
now twelve, fourteen or more, the technology
modernizes on a semi-annual basis.

pedals called rat traps
that form cages for feet.
now clips that cleat completely
making foot, ankle, calf, leg,
thigh completely anchored fast--

ball bearings, surfaces, tools in brown
felt lined cabinets, glistening dies,
taps for re-threading bottom brackets,
crankarms.

there's a sense though that the finest
bicycle racer ever met, Smilin' George,
was a dink, a jock, jocular, farting,
cracking puns.

selling bicycles he'd won in competition,
taking rival's bottles as hand-ups in long races,
tossing them aside, olympic hopes flying
as they empty, spinning out in the berm.

particularly untouchable, this excellence,
a momentary supercession of a flow in a race,
either by bearing or--well, ambiguity--
a racer superceding another on a particular course--

his bearing surfaces, or races,
tuned to the touch, thousandth's of a
millimeter, no play, no grit--
smooth.

3/92

copyright 1992

steven paul lansky