Training Wheels

This poem from 2002 could have easily sunk into self-absorbed cuteness, but held together the metaphor of learning to ride a bicycle with the sometimes very complicated relationship the poet had with his second wife.

Training Wheels

life calls on us to balance
while hurtling forward,
like a child on her first bicycle,
screaming with that rare mixture
of glee and fear that only children know.

and sometimes. sometimes.
let me be your training wheels
and keep those knees safe
from the rough and rude reality of the earth
while you are learning your way.

for I have fallen, too.
many times, and know a few tricks
that you may have not yet seen or thought of,
caught up in the delight of my heart
with a new coat of paint and a bell.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.