A Thing of Beauty (for Richie Colledge) by Cord Moreski

When I was a kid,
I used to have a neighbor
named Richie Colledge.
He loved Maiden and Sabbath
and rode a black Harley 
with a Fat Bob fuel tank
that had flame decals
flashing on the sides. 
He owned a tattoo parlor
out in Bristol, Pennsylvania,
so each morning I watched
as he left for work
like it was a thing of beauty.

He always started off
by revving his Hog
just enough to let
the neighborhood know
that he was there.
Then he lit his stogie
and adjusted his shades
before he finally sped off
like hell into the face of dawn.

It didn’t matter if it
was shining or raining,
snowing or sleeting.
He drove so damn fast 
that I swore nothing
could touch him—not even death.

Cord Moreski is a writer from New Jersey. His work has been previously featured in As It Ought To Be Magazine, The Silver Birch Press, The Pangolin Review, Philosophical Idiot, The Rye Whiskey Review, The Rusty Truck Press, and several other publications. He is the author of the chapbooks Shaking Hands with Time (Indigent Press, 2018) and Stay Afloat Inside (Indigent Press, 2016). He is currently working on a new project for 2020. You can follow Cord here: https://www.cordmoreski.com