Passage 25.
Top-Ten Mountain Bike Rides, #6.
It is not normal
to seek out loose stones
and grind away
to find the one line
leading my bike
in momentum-building bliss.
Once up,
gunshots applaud me.
Thunder Mountain Shooting Range
is a shotgun blast away.
I am not a clay target!
Neither are the fawns grazing nearby.
It is not normal
to be born within range
of gunshots.
Three climbs later,
more loose stones
rumble under my bike
as we skitter back and forth
and drop down over
one water bar after another.
It is not normal
to search for multiple
safe landings.
I was not born within range
of gunshots,
but my son was,
on the South Side
in hot and humid Chicago.
This ride is my Standard Loop,
Schoolhouse Trail.
I veer away from the children
practicing their evacuation drill
at the edge of this gunshot-free zone.
It is their Standard Loop.
