As I Pedal Away

Baby tomatoes

asleep on the vine,

roots tucked

into cosy compost

at the cherry-brick house

on the corner of Clarence.

Kate Rusby’s Underneath the Stars

filled the ceiling space

of our warm-bread kitchen

observatoire.

A burgundy town bike

propped against the wall

in the paved side yard,

where our cat

squeezed himself

through the trellis

like piped icing.

I rode to work

as the sun clocked off

and home in the mornings,

clattering past

Four Lane Ends

metal mudguards

menacing the milkmen

like the skinny witch

from The Wizard of Oz,

tunic flapping

in the whoosh of the wheels.

Poem note

Written from a memory of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2007.

A spoken-word poem by Claire L. Gibb, published 23 August 2026.

♪ Playing in this memory: “Underneath the Stars” by Kate Rusby