Karl von Drais (1785–1851) on his original Laufmaschine in 1819
For Valerie and fietsers everywhere
Lucretius could not credit centaurs;
Such bicycle he deemed asynchronous.
. . .
And Ixion rides upon a single wheel.
—Empson, "Invitation to Juno"
Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted in 1815,
the biggest bang. It blotted out the sun,
and 1816 would be “the year without a summer”
—crops failed, and starving people ate their horses,
which ever since their ancestors' enslavement on the steppes
had for riding, transport, sport, and cavalry forces
served all the needs of bully Number One.
In Baden, Germany, though, about this time,
Karl Drais invented the fiets, or bicycle, his "Draisine"—
which some in France still call "the little queen."
They passed a law in New York outlawing these dangerous machines*
—legislation not worth the proverbial hill of beans,
since if things go on as they're going on now,
we'll have to credit centaurs, too, soon anyhow:
we'll all need ways to get around
on roads where streams of self-driven cars without a break abound.
And more years sans the once familiar seasons must, ere long, redound.
December 23, 2924
* "The machine enjoyed a brief peak in popularity in 1819, with thousands appearing in London alone. But fears about safety—of the rider and of the pedestrian public—quickly led to bans” (https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/10/25/year-without-summer).