Two After Ai Weiwei, by Michael David Roberts

Flying Pigeons and Forever Bicycles 
 
To count the wheels
is to be lost in circles
of chrome, dark steel,
and rubber, is to see
where feet and hands
once braced the missing
bars and pedals, is to wonder
what it was like to ride
the crowded streets of all
the cities in China, to hear
only the whir of sprockets,
the hum of tires on pavement,
the one-speed motion
of legs that push, always,
around and around, to see
how each machine,
when welded together,
forms one continuous circle,
to realize how
this simple invention
could hold promises
for those willing and able
to balance themselves and lean
forward, to feel the wind
of possibilities on their faces,
the tears bleeding from their eyes,
not just from the cold air,
but from the sheer illusion
                                       of flying.
 
**

Entering Ai Weiwei’s F.U.C.K. 2000 at the SAM, 2025
 
“Art should be a nail in the eye….”
Ai Weiwei
 
The first thing you see
when you step inside
is the artist giving
you the finger--
 
take a few steps deeper
and you are surrounded
by duplicate statues
in various poses
all flipping you off
 
and the walls are covered
in photographs
of various people
with the artist
 
in Tianamen Square
or Times Square
in Beijing
or New York City
 
all giving the finger
to whoever has paid
their way to see this
 
and you wonder
if it matters
where you sit or stand
or walk or breathe
 
whether the desire
to say fuck you
to what the world
has done to us all
 
is as universal
as a handshake
or a wave--
 
you have to ask yourself
if the person on the other side
feels the same way you do.

Michael David Roberts

Learn more about Weiwei at the Seattle Art Museum exhibition:
https://www.seattleartmuseum.org/whats-on/exhibitions/ai-weiwei
​
As a boy, Michael David Roberts parents "forced" him to visit art shows whenever they could, and as a result, he grew to love walking through galleries, standing before the works of famous artists, leaving himself behind in their paintings. He would have loved to become an artist myself, but instead he found his calling in poetry.  His work has appeared in Chelsea, Versedaily, The Comstock Review, and many other literary journals. He currently lives and writes in Tumwater, Washington, where he retired as a community college English professor in 2025.