Cutting the sleeves off- a meditation on Dave Baton, by his friend Scot Benton.

last night i cut the sleeves off my favorite jersey
for dave
because of dave

last night i sat in a straight-backed wooden chair
no air conditioning
bolt upright
waiting for dave to show up

i thought of once when he looked at a bike i was working on
and said under his breath with a smile, "that'll never work."

he was right

i thought of once riding - full gas - off the front of some silly group ride
thinking i had things stretched out real good and proper
and suddenly realizing i had dave in my shadow
breathing words of encouragement - he was

i asked him to "pull-through," looking at him over my shoulder
"this'll never work," i heard him mutter under his breath...

he was right

tonight a million years ago
i sat waiting for dave to show up
to ride across town for beer
to stand over our bikes on the tops of hills
- listening to the cicadas and the breeze

one night as we sat quietly off Gaines street breathing in the glorious "nothing" that tends to happen
we saw a rider approaching
as the person passed going up the long hill toward the capital building
dave and i both instinctively stuck up our hands in greeting
the guy looked right at us - kept going - and did not wave back
realizing we both knew the guy, we sat for another moment in silence
then dave said, "that guy needs to raise his saddle."

he was right

a year or so later, on another hyped-up group ride, i overheard the guy dave and i saw that night -

he was talking about how he had changed his riding position - it looked very much like he had raised his saddle

last night i cut the sleeves off my favorite jersey
for dave
because i need to hang on to dave in my heart
because dave had this special way of being "right" about things
that taught me something
i will never forget him

Scot Benton

Thanks Scot, for sharing this with us. We will see everyone at Joe's Bike Shop @ 10:00 A:M on Saturday, sleeveless.

Juancho