Year Of The AJS

It was the year of the Matchless,
the year of growing wings, flying on
350cc’s, often with bumpy landings.

Ah, but the distances panned, vistas
peeled beneath sweeps of wire-spoked
wheels churning portentously. And the

illicit learnings, secret conniving gleaned
from boyhood scarcely outspanned,
exhilarating ventures out of fantasy land.

There was an almost-love planned,
engineered by my sibling’s astral dating
agency, but no theme for it to expand into.

Fledgling loves and fascinations in an
evolving circle of friends – mad awakenings,
crushed endings, epithets of cruel mornings.

Yet whenever the dour sentiments distressed
the AJS* waited patiently, barked into life and
sped me away; no looking back, no regrets.

Alas, my steed ended its life with ignominy,
abandoned where she faltered and fell, left
to a slow death by the roadside to bigger things.
© I.D. Carswell 2007

(*Matchless/AJS 350cc roadster circa 1958)