It's aluminium in freefall
where the front wheel
bites on the corners at angles
that skirt the whizzing pedals
dangerously close to the rails
and it's all downhill
and down steps that tilt
under thuddering suspension felt
in the elbows, and built
down through the helter-skelter
of houses that somersault
along dirt tracks, a town off kilter
where dust clouds melt
into air and the rider is held
for a second in sky cleaved
from the mountainside
before the handlebars dive
terrifying coaster-high slides
thundering on through sighs
where the bike climbs the sides
of the huts, trembling at heights
before it veers off and decides
to drop down breakneck miles,
of rattling adrenaline,
sidewinding between tight files
of squealing applause, whines
from the brakes, skids, turns
and arrives at a finishing line.
