wheel on a hot summer afternoon my grandpa gave me a wheel and rode away down the lane on his own bicycle. I was left to feel the hot tread of the tire. count the spokes. I did not think then to call after him, to ask him for the rest of the bicycle. I was content to watch the wind roll through the poplar trees and feel the sun on my face. years later still carry the wheel at my side, I find myself asking my memory of him for the frame, the pedals a seat. but he always rides away silent. never looks back over his shoulder

valentino part 1. dried halved grapefruits flakes of pink flesh clung to the yellow skin small white feathers clung to the grey skin of valentino�s chest he picked them out one by one they dropped down to the newspaper at the bottom of the cage if you moved too fast or stated too long his yellow head feathers stood on end sometimes he tilted his head to one side poked his beak between the bars and squawked gimme a kiss if you leaned your face to his sometimes he rubbed his beak against your lips sometimes without warning he bit the not knowing impossible to resist valentino part 2. my grandpa taught valentino to talk placed words like sunflower seeds on his round black tongue his first sentence birds can�t talk valentino was so proud he bounced up and down kicked over his water dish and shit grey shit down onto the newspaper and cracked sunflower seeds down the hall he squawked again and again to the canaries and finches who sang and fluttered from perch to perch inside their cages valentino circled his own cage gripped the thick bars with his beak pulled himself around and around while my grandpa sat patiently with another seed between his fingertips Patrick Horner Copyright � 2003

Patrick Horner is bi-polar, he works as an engineer and writes poems that make women melt. He first began writing to pick up chicks and then discovered he was quite good at it. He has just completed a year of studies in creative writing at the University of Calgary and is working on his first full length manuscript.