Last Tucson Loop Ride Of March 2026

a lightly marbled sky
above us riding in a line
three of us on this morning ride

quite a few spandex-clad bikies
speeding by in both directions
cutting in and out
always in a hurry
to who knows where

never really paid attention till today
the weenies were all around my age
had just previously assumed they
were ‘macho’ gym boys and their
gym-bunnies…

though on the weekends they are
parading the Loop as well
today they were significantly absent
just old ‘boomers’
claiming the Loop as their own

a few homeless pushing their
shopping carts and sitting
by their ‘tents’ and bed-rolls
pretending not to see
the weenies and me roll by

the riverbed was dry
the recent sky-spittle from the night
left no trace, no reprieves
just dry riverbed
the Loop shoulders covered
in flaxen dead-looking grasses

saw one cottontail
scamper into the path-side
brush and disappear

heard there was a lizard
a skink, but didn’t see it

the morning turned hot
by the end of our ride

the last morning
in March 2026

–LE – 3/31/26