Don’t Tell Mom

Image credit; Yaopey Yong @ Unsplash

The bicycle was too big and looked daunting

But *kuya said riding it would be easy

We pretty much did everything together and I always followed his lead

So when he said I could ride with him, I was confident in his ability

I trusted him because I know he always has my back

As soon as we started, I wanted to get off

We fell not long after as I couldn’t keep still

With scraped knees we looked at each other and laughed

He told me, “don’t tell mom”

I looked up at him, nodded and said, “let’s do that again”.

© Maria Michaela

*Kuya is a Filipino term or respectful title or form of address for an older man/boy usually one’s older brother

---

For the visually challenged reader, the above image shows a bicycle leaning against a wall which has a wall art of two boys. The bicycle is positioned in a way that the boys appear to be riding it.

This was written in response to Sadje’s What do you see # 146

Fun fact: When I was younger, my older brothers and I would get into different mischief. Our eldest would often say, “don’t tell mom” when he knows we’re about to do something that could get us (mostly him) in trouble. He’s a responsible older brother but kids being kids, we did a lot of shenanigans back then.

Advertisement