Always Get Back On The Bike

walking down the path that leads to Crawford Park
from 15th street
i pass the same pothole that was there
twenty-two years ago

as black and as deep as it was
when i biffed the Huffy
and ripped the shit out of my knee on the pavement

the scar is still there

it reads
like a chapter in a story

a story that tells you
i have been cut and torn

hit and bruised

that i have been
beaten
pummeled
and wrecked
many times in many places

that
i
have lived