Einstein on a Bike
When the Titanic
Sailed into New York Harbour
Time-travellers cheered.
The Booking Office
Of ‘Marie Celeste’ Travel
Opened for business.
Shergar reappeared
And won another Derby.
Time’s a bicycle.
Albert Einstein thought
Up the Special Theory
Of Relativity
While riding his bike.
“Bicycle cy-borgs
Are man’s future,”
He said in 2022,
“Unless you wish to go back
To the Dark Ages.”
He also said:
“Life Is like riding a bicycle:
To keep your balance
You must keep moving.”
And fellow visionary
H.G. Wells pronounced
That “Cycle tracks will
Abound in Utopia.
Every time I see
Someone on a bike
I no longer despair of
The human race.
Who can there be left
Who doesn’t see it’s the machine
For the planet’s future?”
And the Grateful Dead
Said they were “better than guitars
For picking up girls.”
Bicycles go forward
Without wasting anything,
Suiting runaway hearts.
Heathcote Williams