Andrew Hudgins

I Rode my Bike Over Hill and Dale

I rode my bike over hill and dale
and over rock and rill—
though I’m not sure I’d know a “dale”
as I zoomed down the hill

unless it had a sign on it
in big and bright-red print.
I might have recognized a rill
if given half a hint,

and I might be surprised to know
a fen, a lea, a mead
was something I saw every day
(and not just when I read)--

as I went flying down the hill
too fast to ask, “What’s that?”
of all the things I hurtled past—
until I hit a cat.

I wobbled, fell, and broke my crown.
I learned it as it healed,
so now I know the blood-soaked skull
the schoolbook named concealed.

< back | next >

 

Andrew Hudgins' most recent book of poems is Ecstatic in the Poison, and his next book, Shut Up, You're Fine!: Troubling Poems for Troubled Children, will be published by The Overlook Press in 2009.