John’s Legs
I love
John’s legs,
Pumping pedals up and down.
Strong, sculpted, serviceable
Like David.
As perfectly proportioned
As the Vitruvius Man.
No mere hamstrings these
Sinuous forms moving under taught skin and lycra.
Semitendinosus, semimembranosus,
Vastus lateralis, biceps of the thigh.
The gastrocnemius flexes to display
A great inverted heart
And from the back of calves
Delivers a continual visual valentine.
When rarely I pass, I receive
A full display where quad meets knee of
Rectus femorus, vastus medialius
And vastus lateralis power.
I cannot see the action where hip meets thigh,
My heart flutters,
I can only imagine.
Anne made me post this.
Anne, What fun! It was a joy to read your incredibly heartfelt and imaginative thoughts put to verse. But the most incredible part was your amazing understanding of anatomy, as well as your ability to spell all those words! Did you get help from Marion?
Or are some of them made up? Can’t fool me! I’m going to have to study your ode with a medical dictionary so that I can truly appreciate it! It’s akin to reading Shakespeare–the joy is in truly understanding it, which helps one to see the genius behind it! But the words themselves are, in their own rights, just fun to roll around the tongue. Congrats on a wonderful piece of writing and to the inspiration of it all!
(P.S. What’s with the Canadian shirt? We all want to know.)
When Anne rode her first century it was in Canada with Hank and Lynn sagging for us. To celebrate the occasion Hank bought us Canadian Maple Leaf biking Jerseys. Thanks Hank.
Nope, no help from me. And yes, it is all accurate. Great ode to the human body!
Hello!
Jeff and I are planning a river cruise in Europe in September, and I went on line to read more about one of the sites we might see. I was reading it in German, and saw the word “knapp.” In context, I was able to sort of figure out what it meant. It was contained in information about Mozart: “Mozart war knapp 13 Jahre alt, als er sie komponiert hat.” Basically, Mozart was (about?) 13 years old, when he composed the piece” mentioned in the information. But Knapp couldn’t mean ‘about,’ I thought. So I went to an online translator, and this is what it said:
Knapp:
adv. barely, hardly, scarcely; concisely, succinctly, in a concise manner
adj. concise, succinct, short and to the point, brief yet comprehensive, limited; tight, close-fitting.
Another site just said ‘tight.’
And tight could mean close-knitt, like your family–don’t you think?
Regarding Mozart, I think it means he was ‘barely’ 13 when he wrote the piece. But you have a lot of options! Take your pick! Just thought I’d through something out there for you to debate and keep you busy!
Nice to hear from you Marion! And thanks for the story behind the shirts. How nice to take Hank with you on the ride.