September 19, 2016

4 ½ years ago,
my climate ride one,
on this third day,
I wrote my
“It’s OK to Walk” poem.

I don’t walk (up hills)
anymore, though I
will stop and catch my breath
when it feels like,
if I don’t,
my lungs will burst.

But I’ve never ridden
all day through rain
as is possible today
when we finally leave at 10,
two hours late.

I woke up early this morning
to the not-unpleasant sound
of strong rain
on the camp building roof,
here in eastern Pa.,
near Valley Forge,

Near where thousands
camped and suffered
240 years ago
for freedom from
foreign domination.

We are riding these five days
for freedom from fossil fuels,
for a fossil fuel free future,
for energy from wind, solar, water
and the earth’s heat and coolness–
no burning, no air, land and water pollution,
no digging deeper and deeper
into the climate crisis abyss.

Around me in the campsite dining room
sister and brother riders
talk together, work their phones,
eat and drink and wait,

As the rain keeps coming down,

On day three,
57 miles to go,
and then 135 more
before Climate Ride 2016,
NYC-DC, ends,

And we all return home
to keep working
for a world
where Climate Rides
are not needed,
where we are all one
with Mother Earth.