written for Dairina Merchant
I was encouraged by my husband when I began the process of serious exercise to take up cycling. During that period we took part in a couple of major bike events together, including me completing the shorter version of Ride London while he rode the full route. Having a Zwift account during Lockdown also proved to be a lifesaver.
In the last two years I’ve started taking Spin Classes at the Gym a lot more seriously, and a lot of that is due to having Dairina as my instructor. Her taste in music, including an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the last 30 years of EDM in all its forms, is as much of a motivation to train as the health benefits Spin offers.
Sometimes, all I really need is the right soundtrack to increase my effort and results…
Old Studio
this class spins wheels of pain
like clockwork
every Monday
a complex set of overlaps
an almost perfect ratio
always slanted slightly skewed
curvature
within reality
back to the point when effort
sublimates rotation into me
and here’s that beaten ache again
within a chest
at breaking point
only complex equations remain
outcomes I am yet to solve
Venn diagrams I’ve misaligned
overlaps
pile up old regrets
as reality begins to devolve
actuality computes accepts
let effort come and wipe me clean
a slate that waits
aches to be taut
split apart by history
when accepting all at fault
calculative outcomes
conclusions
can’t maintain
this and I aren’t
good enough
only
need
remains
Poem copyright S. Reeson © 2026
Prohibition on Use of Work in AI.
For avoidance of doubt, the Author reserves the rights to this publication. No part of this publication can be utilised or reproduced for the purposes of assisting artificial intelligence technologies. © 2026
the Internet of Words presents 