I discovered that the world was available in New York
and the bike was a perfect medium through which to discover it.
Just wear filthy clothes you could sweat in,
a bag you didn’t mind getting dirty,
and start riding wherever you damn felt like.

The best idea was to have a place to go.
Set a mission.
It didn’t matter if I arrived at the destination,
but if I had a plan,drive to go somewhere,
instead of just aimlessly tooling around.

It gave the ride purpose, momentum.
It made me sweat.

So I came up with a general mission:
go to all the public libraries in Brooklyn.
I liked going to libraries,
seeing their collections,
checking out if there were any particular books they had
that I might want to borrow.
This would be fun.

I took one of the maps with the list of all the libraries,
and I started checking off the branches I’d already visited.
A handful were already taken care of.
Now I would ride to a couple that sounded familiar.
I could look at the edifice and decide
if I’d actually been there before.
If it looked like nothing I’d ever seen,
I’d go in and check it out.
If it was something that I knew,
I could just check it off.

And I started going through the list.
It got pretty wavy after a while,
sweat giving the piece of paper
some character
and discoloration.
The markings all over made it hard to be clear,
after a while,
if I got everywhere.
I think I did.
All the names looked familiar, finally,
but I’d have to go through it again
to be sure.

I’ve certainly accomplished the same in Manhattan.
Perhaps it’s time to oil up the latest bike
and see how I can do in the Bronx
– and maybe Staten Island is calling me…?