For Paul Brookes’ challenge, the painting I chose is I need a private world by Marcel Herms.

Verboten

When the wheels spin, I spin,
leaf, feather, world, it all spins
to the rhythm of my turning pedals.

Sky flashes
flecked with birds swooping,
leaves falling,

unknown voices drift
in and out of my ear,
clear as blue, limpid.

Then they bark,
the parents at the end of the garden,
peering over the gate,

straining with narrow eyes.
They bark about safety
and horrors at the end of the lane,

drawing in my chain.
I strain, push pedals
but the spinning fails;

they reel me in with their
mastiff authority, heavy jowled—
I wish I could fly.