The Stolen Bike

You get your bike stolen
And suddenly your whole world view changes

Suddenly being eight-years-old
Is the same thing
As carrying all the weight of the world
Up on your shoulders

All I can think about is some other eight-year-old
Riding around on the red bike
That's rightfully mine
That I rightfully earned
By whining for a solid five hours one weekend
Until my mom broke down
And took me to the store
Right before it closed on Sunday night

I took the next two days out of school
Claiming botulism
And learned how to ride that bike all by myself
Using nothing but determination
And instructional Youtube videos

Then, after days of riding that bike after school
I connected to that inanimate object in a way
That only a Buddhist
Or a pure materialist could understand

The bike and I became one

I told my Dad about that
And he called me Peter Fonda
And I googled him
But all I know is that he was on drugs
So I think my Dad was saying 'Don't do drugs
Just keep riding that bike'
And now I can't
And that doesn't mean I'm going to do drugs
But one day I might
Because I'm now hardened to the world at large

I'd like to say that when I find out who did this
I'll forgive them
But first I'll probably have to beat them up a lot
And then show them mercy
And then beat them up some more
And then forgive them

Rage isn't something you can just throw away
Like the plastic baggie full of carrots
Your mom puts in your lunchbox

It grows on you like hair and mushrooms
And then you have to either cut it off or bury it in the mashed potatoes
And hope nobody notices

I miss that bike
The day it was taken
I lost a part of myself
The part that really liked
Having a bike

I may get that bike back
And I may like having it back
And then it might seem like everything's cool again

But in the back of my mind
I'll always remember this feeling right now
How mad and upset I am
And how I'm probably never going to see my bike again
And that means five more hours of whining
So I can get my Mom to bring me to the store
Before it closes

And it'll be hard to move on from all this

It's going to be something
I may never get over