This piece is featured in Issue No. 17 DYKE II - She's Back

Poetry \ Digital Painting

Dykes on Bikes \ Dyke Love

Dykes on Bikes

They never fail to bring a 

Tear to her eye, these dykes 

On bikes, declaring this parade is ON. Like a  

Proclamation, a permission 

Manifesto of all our dreams — except for the pipe dreams (Unless it’s your pipes) 

On those bright Saturdays in June 

The motors rev and so do our dreams, our 

Rêves, which is French for dream, accelerating all 

Our fantasies of being  

Both drivers and passengers right now 

When they do that, with their bikes 

These dykes, something awakens in  

Her like a muscle, kicking itself 

Into high gear, no fear, you can see it on 

Her face now, these vibrations  

from her vertebra, from these bikes 

Like you she claimed her name, told them what 

She was, when all they’d said was what she  

Wasn’t. Crushed their silence with her thunder, penned  Her own public notice of noise, and then tore it to  Pieces with her own teeth, refusing not to run 

Off at the mouth  

Quiet now: as we wait for the first blast, suspended in  Air until the dykes burst us like bubbles with their  

Cacophony, leading in their famous formation, infamous  In their ability to tell time  

To be told by a dyke on a bike is to be told 

                It’s time

Dyke Love


Sylvester Green

Sylvester Green lives in Toronto with her wife and family. Her work (under a different name) includes a short story collection, and her poems and stories have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines including many gendered mothers. she's been shortlisted for CBC’s Short Story Contest, Canada Writes Stories of Belonging, ReLit Awards and Carter V. Cooper short fiction contest. She thinks being a lesbian is the best thing than can happen to anyone.