LD Goodwin

LD Goodwin Jul 2013

Wake up!
Gotta ride!
Stretch Piriformis
Crawl out of bed
My God my hair!
Cold water in the face!
I can do this, I’ve done it before
One egg fried,
One piece of toast,
One bowl of granola,
One cup of courage w/ cream and brown sugar.
Do something with that hair!
Drink more liquids
I’m awake now,
walk out into the heat
It’s 8am and 75 degrees already
Go back in and fill an extra bottle
Got my Fig Newton’s
Got my Shot Blocks
Got my senses
Air up, 110 in front, 120 in back
Check brakes
Do I freewheel?
I need to clean this ride someday
What time is it?
I gotta **** again
You ready to go Dude?
Helmet on,
Gloves and glasses
Let’s go!
Ride “rollers” for the first 15 miles or so then…
Hit the hill from hell
Drink all your water now, you won’t be able to once you start climbing.
6-8 % grade
Cat 2-3
Only a few miles long, but seems like forever
It’s like standing still
2-3 miles and hour grind
Gotta stand up now and then, my Piriformis are killing me
So steep you pop little wheelies with every stroke if you sit too far back on the bike
hands sweating through the gloves making it hard to hold on to the hoods
Grip the shifters so tight your hands get just as tired as your legs
Up and out of the saddle now,
rocking the hill, and dancing on the pedals
Glad to see false tops
Catch a breath or two
Hairpin curves so sharp I can see myself coming and going
No “circle back" rule on this hill.
Car passing by asks, “You fixin' to climb 'at dare hill?'”
Cows look at me as if I am crazy
Your mind says no
Your body says no
You say yes…. It’s just one stroke after another
90 degree heat now.
Thank God for the shade
Nothing you do after this will be as hard
But this is harder than anything you've ever done
Your body will remember what happens today
You are in oxygen deprivation the whole hill
You can't talk
You take breaths so big that your you hear your ribs creak and find their place.
You can't take your hands off the handlebar
You can't stop, you'll go down
If you stop you have to go back down to get clipped in to come back up
Your sunglasses are fogging up from the heat
You stop thinking about everything, except how to get up this hill
And then it hits you….. I am going to do this!
I am going to climb this ******* hill!
There is the top!
****, I am going to do this!

And for awhile, just as you come over the summit,
You imagine you're
wearing a polka dotted jersey,
and pretty French girls are handing you flowers,
and a cute stuffed animal,
and are kissing you on the cheek.

Then you ride the other 15 or so miles home,
take a shower, eat a bowl of pasta.
And go to work at the mall selling bicycles
to customers who have no idea
that you just gracefully climbed
a Cat 2-3 hill
in 90 degree heat,
at 61 years old

*http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/fullscreen/246751753/

Harrogat,TN July 2013

LD Goodwin Jul 2013

A Lover's Morning

And now, as the sunrise opens my eyes,
I wander through the memories
of the night and my love's embrace.

Of her warm and tender touch,
and kisses sweet with passion,
the moon glow on her face.

Satin skin, opalesque,
her scent is with me still,
imbued upon my mind.

I close my eyes, and again I am there,
her smiling face to see,
so wanting, so kind.

Once entwined bodies,
now wake to love another day,
stretching and yawning.

Peacefilled hearts
at one in love.
On this, a lover’s morning.

Harrogate, TN July 2013

LD Goodwin Jul 2013

July 4th, 1976

On July the 4th in 1976, the bicentennial of our great nation. I awoke at 3am in Lakeside, Ohio to start a journey to Plant City, Florida. I was to pick up a leased car in Kent, Ohio and take it to Greenwich, Connecticut. Where I joined several others to make the trek to the Sunshine State. When I crossed the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River in New York City, off to my right I saw the tall ships heading out to the harbor for the day's celebrations. The radio played every version of God Bless America in their archive. I sang every one of them. We traveled all day and into the night where we saw fireworks in at least 4 states. We reached our destination in Plant City very early in the morning on the 5th of July. But
I Larry Dean Goodwin on July 4th, 1976 in a brand new American made Red Chevrolet Monti Carlo sedan traveled through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C., North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida.
God Bless America, God Bless Us All.

LD Goodwin Jun 2013

Norco Meets RS For The First Time At The Pub (a Fantasy)

You'll know who I am,
I'll be wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt, Lucky Jeans.
I am 6'-2", 205lb slim build, with light brown hair.
At a distance you see me and think, this guy can't be 61,
but as you get closer the lines begin to show.
I give you a hug that says thank you for being a friend and it is all OK now.
It may be a bit awkward at first,
but being a master of making small talk I make us feel at home.
There is gray and silver, entwined amid the subtle hints that I am from a totally different era.
I am like a time traveler.
I flit from topic to topic, and you strain to understand me.
You think this guy is either high, or he's..... High.
I'll talk incessantly about me until I realize that I am doing so,
then I'll shift it on you.
I'll watch as the poetess weaves her words like sandalwood incense curling through the air.
She'll take me on her rides and rhymes, reading to me her latest poems.
Time will fly as it has never done before.
I never wear a watch, so I'll fumble with my phone to see what time it is.
Closing time.
****, and I was just getting to know you.
But wait it is Friday. No, work tomorrow...........

*.......as the last of the Spring rain falls, two old bikes lean against the bricks of the old pub.

Harrogate, TN June 2013

LD Goodwin Jun 2013

When The Bluesman Comes To Town

Jasper words pour from his lips,
in contrapuntal time.
They shuffle just behind the beat,
they strain to make their rhyme.

Sweat drips on his old guitar,
strings bend and cry and sing.
Hear the Blues Man on his throne,
he makes his guitar ring.

Air thick with smoke and rhythm,
like some ancient ritual dance.
Mesmerizing, hypnotizing
he puts you in a trance.

Weaving tones and chicken bones,
with cheap flat lukewarm beer.
There's no place you would rather be,
than with the Blues Man in your ear.

To take bad juju off his strings,
he'll use the John the conqueror root.
He ain't got a *** to **** in,
But he's got a blue silk suit.

His shoe keeps time, heel to toe,
with a whiskey voice he croons.
Harp in its rack, he wails away,
a Little Walter tune.

With gospel affectations,
he preaches to his throng.
"I saw her kissin' Willie last night,
she went and done me wrong".

"I'm gonna take the next thang smokin'
out of this here town".
Then he slides a bottle across the strings,
and it makes a mournful sound.

You forget about your troubles
when you get what he's layin' down.
He'll take you to the other side,
when the BluesMan comes to town.

Harrogate, TN June 2013

LD Goodwin Jun 2013

Quit *******' About Being Lonely, ( someone is dying to be with you)

National adopt a cat month is here,
It happens in June every year.
Go to your local animal shelter,
and pick up a cute little heart melter.

*12 million kittens/cats are euthanized each year. To find a shelter near you contact......
http://www.aspca.org/

LD Goodwin Jun 2013

Pink

Tomorrow morning they are going to take them,
what am I going to do?
He says it doesn’t matter to him, because I have a pretty face.
In all the years we've been married, he’s never told me I had a pretty face.
I don’t think he’s going to be able to handle this.
Hell, I don’t think I'm going to be able to handle this.
God ******, I am going to loose my hair,
I am gonna loose my beautiful ******* hair, then everyone will know.
People will put sanitizer on their hands after they shake mine.
All my friends and family will treat me differently.
They’ll feel sorry for me, they won’t know what to say.
And then there’ll be those who will say too much, or the wrong thing.
"I’ll pray for you", some will say,
But I know what they are thinking, they think....
"that is what she gets for drinking her martinis and smoking her ***".
Some will even say it is God’s will.
**** God!
He is stealing my beauty,
my wonderfully gorgeous ****, my hair.
They are a part of me.
I don’t give a **** what a man thinks about my *******,
that they are **** or voluptuous,
they are a part of me.
And now, like a side of beef,
they are going to section me up and take them from me.
What will they do with them?
I mean after they biopsy.
Can I have them to bury?
Sorry, I know that wasn't necessary, but I am mad.
I am mad and afraid, I am so afraid.
I know my husband, he will never be the same.
He doesn’t **** me with his eyes closed, my **** turn him on.
But then any woman’s **** turn him on.
When he reaches to touch them, there’ll be nothing there.
I’ll look like a little boy, nothing.
Maybe I have identified with them too much,
I have made them a big part of my personality.
I've fed my children with them, my boyfriends fought over them,
they have got me into and out of trouble more than once.
****, I am going to have to get a whole new wardrobe.
And now, in the morning
they are going to cut them off of me
and put them in a stainless steel operating room bowl.
Like chicken fat.
Why do I feel like this,
I didn’t cry when the dentist pulled my wisdom teeth?
What if he told me I had to or else I would die, I’d pulled them myself?
I trim my nails, and get my hair cut and dyed.
I exfoliate my skin.
I lost 10lbs last year and I didn’t shed one tear,
my ******* will weigh more than that.
But I am loosing something else,
I am loosing normal.
I'll have to find a new normal.
I am loosing myself
and replacing it with a different person.
I’ll be one of them,
I’ll be a survivor,
a hero.
I'll hold hands with other survivors and walk 10 miles
and wear a **** load of pink.
Hey, but I don't look too bad in pink.

*later this week a friend is going to have a double mastectomy. These are just a few of the words I have collected from other breast cancer survivors. I had to do something for her. My hope is that we become more aware of the fear and pain that breast cancer victims go through.

Harrogate, TN June 2013