Mount Olympia

Laura Madeline Wiseman

 

Your first bike was a hand-me-down ten-speed—Olympia, 1970s orange Huffy, handlebars patched by electrical tape. You commuted to your part-time job, took the river trails, ignoring the boys who taunted women, kids, little girls. After college, your lover took us apart, painted us blue, tried to rebuild and failed—lack of skill, lack of drive, lack of funds. Even still, we sit in the garage on a hook, cruising the air, spokes gathering spider webs, leaves, the whispering desire of teen rides.

 


Laura Madeline Wiseman’s recent books are An Apparently Impossible Adventure (BlazeVOX Books), Wake (Aldrich Press), and Leaves of Absence (Red Dashboard). She teaches in Nebraska. Her collaborative book Intimates and Fools (Les Femmes Folles), with artist Sally Brown Deskins, is an Honor Book for the 2015 Nebraska Book Award. Her essay on long distance cycling, "Seven Cities of Good," is an honorable mention for the Pacific Literary Review's 2015 Creative Nonfiction Award.