TheBanyanTree: ladybugs IV

[Mike Pingleton]

ride on me, little brother, and suffer
a while the piston pitch of a warm
denim deck and fall's balm buffet.
winter lies centered between my handlebars.
plucked from my thigh I will park you
in a warm garage, a dark refuge
from winter's bony winds.  we meet
again when the new sun comes.

ride with me, little sister, and let stars
and seasons wheel at their dumb trades.
be you the jeweled badge of our joyous day,
and I the blurred herald of the heart-warmed home.
two bumps on time's log, today we ride across
this tannin-edged crackle of an afternoon,
in the soft slanted season of the dying sun.