there must be immense pleasure
in the repair of bicycles
you can find a yard full of them
in just about any county, where
there’s always some nice person, devoted
to fixing them up, who sells them
with a handshake, and a smile, and
a chat about spokes, axles, handlebars,
and they never really say why
they fix them, it’s just something to do
they say, it’s just easy
a few bolts, a gear or two, rubber and air
far cry from fixing
pensions to make them solvent,
shoring up budgets for infrastructure,
negotiating for peace
still, the mechanics of them all
are they not similar?
tighten this, loosen that,
make sure there’s plenty of the other
so then, imagine,
if one leader would by chance
help another leader
fix a few bicycles, well
what a day that would be