newfound limitations
incline
like stairs
winded
beyond reason
two wheels
shifting gears
lower
lower still
like climbing
but not
standstill
admit defeat
need downhill wind
U-turn, too hard
airborne
wheels left behind
helmet
my old friend
pavement
my new friend
alternate inclination
fewer inclines
on the water
seeking my own level
kayaking
with a limp
Shared with On This Day… the Open Link Night at dVerse ~ Poets Pub.
rivrvlogr 
Beautifully written. I can feel this so much. I once fell off my electric scooter at almost 10mph (which is not much) and I scraped both of my knees to the point where you can still see what happened. Lol. Good times, right?
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Thank you. What would we do without stories to tell. 😉
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Hahaha, exactly. I do hope you feel better. ❤
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Kayaking might be safer! Hope your wounds heal soon.
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Thank you, Jane. Getting wet is much better than getting broken.
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Yes, you can always get dry.
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🙂
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Ouch! I hope you feel better soon Ken.
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Thanks, Linda. It’s been a week, and I’m getting there.
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I’m happy to hear you are recovering. 🙂
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🙂 I made a point to take off my ring when I got home. Good thing. All four finger swelled 50%. I was able to get it back on a week later.
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Oh my. I had that happen when I broke the only bone I’ve ever broken. It was my left ring finger and I did it while I was lunging my horse. The rope got wrapped around my finger and she reared and my finger snapped- painful!
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😦
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Yikes! I was never good at riding a bicycle. Hope your wounds heal quickly!
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Thank you. It was my pride as much as anything!
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You made me smile with your newfound limitations and kayaking with a limp, Ken! I hope you’re not too sore from your accident.
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Thank you, Kim. My hand took the hardest blow, it seems. Four fingers on my left hand were swollen 50%. A week later, and a can just barely get my ring on & off. My home is surrounded by very steep hills, so I’ve stuck to the exercise bike for the last 7 years. I’ve decided if I’m going to take my bike (by car) out of the neighborhood, I’ll go an extra 5 miles to a converted “rails-to-trails” path that is my now-old-man-speed. 🙂
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I haven’t got on my bike in a very long time. I must get it out now the temperature is cooler.
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I remember falling of my bike and having to go to the hospital to get stitched up. Thankfully I had a helmet that lessened the damage.
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Falling off my bike as a kid soured me from ever riding a motorcycle. The pavement becomes a kill zone.
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I’ve bodysurfed the pavement at 50mph. That’s no fun. And that’s a helmet I never wore again.
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OUCH! A fall from a kayak will be far less painful!!
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Much softer. 🙂
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The other day, I was trying to recall the last time I tried a bike ride (not counting the mandatory stationary gym equipment. Couldn’t. I THINK it was 1979…
Glad you survived, Brother. Stick with the kayak.
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Thanks, Ron. A kayak offers the added benefit of the paddle as a crutch. 😉
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Ouch! I still have a scar on my knee from biking off ramp as a kid 🙂
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I was thirteen, on a younger friends banana seat trying to do a wheelie. I ended up on my feet, but as the flared back fender passed my leg it left a gash on my knee. Fun times!
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Ha! yes, the memories written in blood…
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Very vivid! can relate, I too have fallen off many times from the bicycle. I hope your wounds heal fast.
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Thank you. I’m getting there.
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Kayaking with a limp sounds very personal and startles as an image. I like the inclination of the poem. Hope all well for you.
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Thank you. Besides walking to the water, kayaking is upper body, so I should be good. I’ll just wait another week or so for my back to feel better.
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Good healing, I hope for you. And I love this poem, I’ve had some accidents myself in sports and so on, taken some falls, and this poem expresses those feelings, oh yes, especially as I get older and the falls get harder…
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Thank you, Claudia. Aging gracefully… I’m working on that.
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There is nothing like digging gravel out of the palms of your hands to let you know you’re alive. I say keep on going the way you are, it seems plenty graceful (and adventurous, which is better) to me.
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Ouch, I felt that, evocative, painful, but I love the new friend line, that touch of humour.
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😀 Make the most of it, right. Thanks, Paul.
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Absolutely Ken 🙂
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Oh, all the little bumps and scrapes and bruises and scars we collect in our lives that marks are survivals big and small. A rough way for poetic inspiration, yet a good story and poem nonetheless. May you heal quickly.
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🙂 Thank you. Yeah, I’ll do anything for a poem. 😉
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Glad it wasn’t worse than it was. You fell on your bicycle? Hard to see if that is a bike helmet or motorcycle one. In either case the trip is a long one to the ground. Your muscles will be sore for awhile.
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Thank you, Lisa. Bicycle. The knee is still sore (besides the scrapes), but getting better.
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kaykuala
alternate inclination
fewer inclines
One invariably has to take chances of choices to discover there are ways and means to anything we do
Agreed absolutely Riv!
Hank
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Thank you, sir!
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I still have a scar on my knee from a childhood mishap. I still enjoy riding a bicycle but, I stick to flat surfaces when possible no hills. I recently tried kayaking and I have to say it was fun but, then
again, I paddled in calm waters. Stay safe!
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Calm water is the way to go! Thank you. 🙂
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Ouch! That looks rather painful! I am glad the helmet to the crunch instead of your head! Hope you are healing well…
dwight
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The knee is getting there, and my fingers are almost back to normal size. Thanks, Dwight.
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Wow! that was a real hit on your body!
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Ouch! Yes, kayaking is easier than scraping the pavement. I clearly remember once seeing the underside of a taxi as my bike skidded horizontally across a road in Oxford ( I hit a diesel spill).
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Yikes!
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Oh! Ouch! I hope kayaking went with a limp went more smoothly. My worst scrape/fall was not sports related at all. I tripped over something in a CVS parking lot 😂 and walked in with my leg all bleeding. I think I asked for and received some band-aids–all pre-Covid, of course.
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I took a crowded parking spot at the vets (adjacent car was well over the line). It was at the end of the lot, and as I ducked to avoid a tree branch my face turned into the upper corner of my car door as it closed. It was only appropriate that I walked into the vet’s office “bleeding like a stuck pig.” 😛 They were very sympathetic and helpful.
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😀😀
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I love this. I have a cracked bicycle helmet hanging in my garage to remind me of the incompatibility of my head and the concrete.
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Thanks. I’m glad to hear your helmet did its job.
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Good luck on the water.
Much💝love
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hank you, Gillena.
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Nice format, broken way to tell the story like a bumpy ride with more flight than fall.
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Thank you. Unfortunately, my flight never left the runway. 😉
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Glad you’re on the mend and without broken bones or spirit. Like other readers, your poem reminded me of my memorable bike falls… one as a kid and one as an adult discovering first hand the treachery of streetcar tracks.
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Thank you, Janice. We’re always learning.
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