Bicycling Les Alyscamps

[Xillus_Xavier]

Bicycling Les Alyscamps


Les Alyscamps--
Vincent Van Gogh, 1888


I'm finding it
rather difficult
to pedal this
awkward apparatus,
a Peugeot
with hard rubber wheels,
down the avenue
this fine autumn
day in Arles,
the brilliant poplars
lining the route
like rows of candles,
the road a blanket
of orange and red.

To my right the
ancient sarcophagi,
whose royal ghosts
raise up and marvel
my horseless chariot--
struggling,
wobbling,
weaving among the
strolling pedestrians,
narrowly missing
a lovely Madame
with red parasail,
earning me scorn
from a dapper chap,
and a flustered,
fiery,
redheaded artist,
who, stepping out
from behind his easel,
demands me
out of the way.