Neruda: Wrong on Bicycles

I borrow my title from the politicians
because I must set this straight.
Likening bicycles to insects
in your lovely Ode
is okay by me, Master.
We cyclists get
the picture (bicycle stem,
a jutting brow; chainrings
have teeth; pencil thin seat stays
look like double-jointed
springy legs, etc.).
But when you say a bicycle
has a soul only
when moving, and proceed
to claim the beloved bicycle
"but/a cold/skeleton/that will
return to/life/only/when it is needed,"
Master,
you go too far.
The beautiful bicycle
cousin to pianos
and violins, suspension
bridges, inviting rooms
that wait for you
to appear,
is more like a book
that remembers its last
reader, if that reader read
deeply and well.

©Daniel Dahlquist