'No bicycle'
This became a cycle
'Why?'
He was afraid we might die
Said he'd had cases like these
But still we did tease
'Many just were not alert
People on bicycles got hurt'
We promised we'd watch out
Mother worked hard on his doubt
Finally, he said, ' Alright'
I guess he'd given up the fight
How could any of us know?
How badly things would go?
It is difficult to write the rest
But I will do my best
The signs all started with the hill
Riding too fast, my brother took a terrible spill
I guess he was not aware
The sand was very loose around there
Bent handle bars
And several scars
Two chipped teeth and a jab in the rib
We wished so much we could tell a fib
We feared we'd lose our bikes for good
And looking back now, maybe we should
Never have learned to ride
When in another bicycle case, my brother almost died
Thirty years later, he would sit waiting to cross
And a car would slam his bike so hard it would toss
His body to the windshield hitting his head
When rushed to the hospital, he was almost dead
He was in a coma and no one could reach him
He went to a recovery place and slowly they could teach him
He eventually learned how and would be walking
He shocked his wife on the phone when he suddenly began talking
He was forty then, didn't even know that his birthday was
The Ides of March took him out so his brain was just fuzz
There was not much to celebrate, it was all so sad, all so drear
He went from thirty-nine to forty with no idea
Thirty years later, his brain has healed many parts
He's such a great guy, he lights up people's hearts
He has no memory of what we went through
How we cried, prayed, and worried as loved ones do
He goes to the garage and walks it out to the street
When the weather is just right, for him to ride, is such a treat.
It would be selfish for us to say, 'o
As our father did so many years ago
He has a right to enjoy his life like the rest of us
He's not a child, we can't make a big fuss
We need to just let him go
This will prove to us how much we love him so
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Author Notes
Our father was a lawyer who used that lense for everything. We were old enough to have bicycles. But he said "no" until my mother finally was able to persuade him differently. This is the trip, where the ability to ride, took my brother and the rest of us.
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