On The Outside Poem by Michael Philips

The bike trail is special
because it does not follow the road
It follows the creek
I ride over wooden bridges,
through fields of flowering weeds
under canopies of sycamore and poplar
and catch glimpses of Hispanics
at their pick-up soccer games
the church barbeques
the kids on their
rock-to-rock creek investigations
I don’t mean to be a chauvinist
about the outdoors, but
remind me again why
you prefer your stationary bike and CNN