Maine Avenue is Combat

[ChampionTier]

I don’t know the first thing about writing poetry, but for some reason today’s commute along Maine Ave registered in a big way. Had a gap between events and it just kinda seemed to work in this way…

MAINE AVENUE ISCOMBAT

Maine Avenue is combat.
Penetrate the field of fire on two wheels as
Machine gun jackhammers punch away in the distance.
Cement truck tanks block the string of refugee cars lined up to escape.
“Break Left,Break Left!” as the driver’s side door of a flatbed truck opens in front of you.

Maine Avenue is combat.
Feel your bones & teeth rattle as you
work your way across the minefield of potholes.
Stay nimble as you jink around the detritus of battle
which covertly waits to bring ruin to your tires – your escape.

Maine Avenue is combat.
Feel the quiet relief as a wingman joins you
and you both slip through to the edges of danger.
Your chatter is clipped and precise — there is no time for superfluous banter
and you acceleratefrom stops as if being chased by dogs.

Fight through! Fight through!

[TwoWheelsDC]

Holy shit Maine was a dumpster fire today. Sounds like you may be working out some deeper issues through your “poetry” beyond bicycling , but it certainly captures some of the emotions I feel on my daily rides through there.

[ChampionTier]

@TwoWheelsDC 165987 wrote:

Sounds like you may be working out some deeper issues through your “poetry” beyond bicycling

I suppose I’m still miffed about the flat tire I got the other day which I suspect was from running over some debris on my way in. That and I’m staring out the window at a perfectly beautiful day and I’m itchin’ to get back out there.

[ursus]

@ChampionTier 165990 wrote:

I suppose I’m still miffed about the flat tire I got the other day which I suspect was from running over some debris on my way in. That and I’m staring out the window at a perfectly beautiful day and I’m itchin’ to get back out there.

Since the construction started, I have blamed 3 bike flats and one car flat on the construction. I am looking enviously at the bike track and thinking how good it will be until the middle of next year when Phase 2 construction begins. That will be even worse for me because it is nearer to where I live.

[bentbike33]

I have resigned myself to overflights of Maine Ave on the Case Bridge. At least until the concurrent Banneker Park re-do makes that option a complete CF too.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@ursus 165993 wrote:

Since the construction started, I have blamed 3 bike flats and one car flat on the construction. I am looking enviously at the bike track and thinking how good it will be until the middle of next year when Phase 2 construction begins. That will be even worse for me because it is nearer to where I live.

I was regularly googling “black lung symptoms” until I switched to the Case Bridge>G St. for my eastbound PM commute. Now I just have to worry about colliding with an inattentive construction worker, getting smushed by a commuter bus, getting right-hooked at 9th, or crashing on one of the new holes they carved in the pavement yesterday on the westbound AM portion of my commute.

[ChampionTier]

@ursus 165993 wrote:

…until the middle of next year when Phase 2 construction begins. That will be even worse for me because it is nearer to where I live.

There’s gonna be a phase 2? Guess I’ll get a black beret, some cigarettes, and some jazz records…more of that stuff is sure to generate another poem or two…

[bentbike33]

@ChampionTier 166000 wrote:

There’s gonna be a phase 2? Guess I’ll get a black beret, some cigarettes, and some jazz records…more of that stuff is sure to generate another poem or two…

…and bongos. Don’t forget the bongos.

[ChampionTier]

@bentbike33 166006 wrote:

…and bongos. Don’t forget the bongos.

**Snaps fingers vigorously as a genuine sign of approval**

[lordofthemark]

“Where the snow comes down before the sun comes up – Maine is the main thing!” Richard Rodgers

[AFHokie]

@ChampionTier 165985 wrote:

Your chatter is clipped and precise — there is no time for superfluous banter

If you start speaking in brevity comm on your bike commute I’m staging an intervention

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930AZ using Tapatalk

[streetsmarts]

@bentbike33 166006 wrote:

…and bongos. Don’t forget the bongos.

This is a fabulous thread. I had to look up “brevity comm”.

[ChampionTier]

@TwoWheelsDC 165995 wrote:

… or crashing on one of the new holes they carved in the pavement yesterday on the westbound AM portion of my commute.

I was pretty happy to see that they filled in the manhole-sized pothole on the WB lane close to the fish market. I think I heard cries for help coming out of it once!

[ChampionTier]

@AFHokie 166019 wrote:

If you start speaking in brevity comm on your bike commute I’m staging an intervention

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930AZ using Tapatalk

We’re not there yet… but I did think “MILLER TIME” as I exited the Eisenhower Connector toward Clarendon on my way home:rolleyes:

[ursus]

To add to the fun, there is a sign up today that Maine Avenue will be repaved from 10/3 to 10/11. Not sure how this will affect travel while it is going on.

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