Pedals Of Progress

Her bicycle wheels spin
Propel her
Turn her through time and space
Past Madison’s leafy woods
Past the geese-filled Lake Mendota
Past restaurants from which waft mouthwatering smells
Through nature’s serenity and the din of the city’s busy throngs 
Through wintery mash and autumn foliage
Against forceful wind currents that threaten to rewind her pedaling and call to mind her Herculean labors
Sharp declines give way to plains that welcome inclines
To the library, she is the delivery


The wheels of time spin
Through seconds and minutes and hours they whirl
Unhurriedly, and with lightning speed
In her yearning for completion
She sees her stint in the academy stretch endlessly
Yet daily 
Her short work hours grow shorter
When will the inexhaustible perusal end?
Days become weeks become months become seasons
Winter beckons spring, spring steps aside for summer
Summer shrinks into autumn, autumn hardens into winter
Year in, year out


Words spin
Into sentences and paragraphs, they roll
Into papers and theses, they twirl
Like the movement through space
Like the advancement of time
Like clay on the potter’s wheel
Gradually but certainly
She is spun
On the horizon she spots victory
She is molded
The song of triumph from afar grows nigh 
She is transformed
Hope, once distant and remote, now grins at her
In the wind, a step away, the finish line flutters 
She is educated!