The woman I love is greedy,
but she refuses greed.
She walks so straightly.

When I ask her what she wants,
she says, “A yellow bicycle.”
Sun, sunflower
coltsfoot on the roadside,
a goldfinch, the sign
that says Yield, her hair,
cat's eyes, his hunger
and a yellow bicycle.

Her song to the yellow bicycle:
The boats on the bay
have nothing on you,
my swan, my sleek one!

Text excerpted from “The Yellow Bicycle” by Robert Hass