Hymn of Frustration

Erato, why torment me so?

I came to worship in your woods,

Those haunts where your familiars go,

An an aspiring rhymester should.

And since a forty-minute hike

Can hardly get me deep within

Those woods, I thought a mountain bike

Would take me farther from the din

Of human voices, buildings, cars

And all distractions of the world,

Where you in thanks would then bestow

On me some small poetic pearl—

It’s worked for poets ages through,

For Robert Frost, most notably—

But what more will I have to do

To get the woods to sing for me

When, after panting, uphill sweat,

And quadriceptal muscle strains,

I stop to catch a breath, and get

Stung by mosquitoes for my pains?

And not a word from you, you witch—

Instead, a sky of grayish black,

My limbs a comprehensive itch,

And rain-soaked head the whole way back.