yesterday a latte break among lady friends
at peet’s coffee, we covered heart matters of various blends
interesting ecosystems of match.com and eharmony learnt
places to risk firing your heart or get rejected and burnt

recalling oliver pining
where….is love?
does it fall from skies above?
who can say where she may hide?
must i travel far and wide?
and nancy proclaiming as long as he needs me
as long as life is long..i’ll love him right or wrong
if you are lonely, then you will know
when someone needs you, you love them so
mingled with lennon’s when i find myself in trouble, mother mary comes to me
speaking words of wisdom, let it be

somehow my penchant for getting lost to find
food for thought, piece of mind
i love to go a-wandering
so join me now in my googling and yodeling

first hit led to “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”
coined by irina dunn, aussie educator-journalist-politician perusing a 19th century article
in 1970 for her english honors course
she stumbled across “a man needs God like a fish needs a bicycle”, a clause for pause
opportune to conspire a gloria steinheim women’s lib cause
and to graffiti perfect on two doors in the loo to moo
one at her sydney university and another at a wine bar in woolloomooloo
this homily migrated to the loo of university of wisconsin-madison
soon feminist t-shirts&posters “behind every great woman is a fish on a bicycle” jettison

which led me to a poetic jig
“a woman needs a man…” by michael leunig
a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle;
a man needs sushi when a woman is an icicle;
a man needs a car to zip across town
to order a tuna and gobble it down.
the tuna needs a car to be partially banned
and bicycles re-introduced to the land;
a person would need to be radically pushy
to pedal for miles in the rain for a sushi;
better to stay home with noodles for dinner;
the man and the tuna would both be the winner.
the world needs to get itself out of a pickle;
a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.

which landed me peddling on “the fish and bicycle” page
compiled by john allen of “a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” rage
and soon to the fish guts cyberspace http://thisfish.ivillage.com/ i brake
celebrating single life-this fish needs a bicycle-if not comfort, at least entertainment’s sake

my cyber tour de france then took me to poet doreen fitzgerald
who in copyright 1993 herald
her version of “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bike”
in the ester republic volume 4 number 2 march 2002 prose mike

a bicycle, that is one she can
pedal with both fins,
the ones that center
her scaled form,
which he likes, of course,
in his own crude way,
with his chain-linked feelings
and geared-down tongue.
you can move water
with a turning wheel,
once you get the balance right.

circling myself back to the trigger source of it all
which is “a man needs God like a fish needs a bicycle” withdrawal
took me to “a man without *God* is like a fish without a bicycle” on phrase finder forum
to yahoo.com socratic pig’s “is man without God like a fish without bicycle?” quorom
of various plausible responses you can cast your votes
here is a sampler of quotes:

with a touch of my rapping kiss
a man without God is….
“an atheist”, “like a fish without water”
“like a fish without gills” in the gutter
“like a pig without an oink”
“God is everything to the Christians, but to a pig, He means O, nothing”, boink

so in the grand finale what do u need, what do u sought?
do we need each other, do we need God?

ricky nelson croons,
no man is an island
and i need u, honest i do

and america swoons,
i need u like the flower needs the rain
u know i need u, guess i’ll start it all again
u know i need u like the winter needs the spring
u know i need u

engelbert humperdinck soared
on 1968 billboard
everyday i wake up, then i start to break up
lonely is a man without love, knowing that it’s cloudy above
everyday i start out, then i cry my heart out
lonely is a man without love

and percy sledge
when a man loves a woman
can’t keep his mind on nothing else
he’d trade the world for the good thing he’s found
percy’s pledge is indeed profound

what about when God loves man, the world around?
in john 3:16, hard-to-comprehend love is abound
for God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life
1 john 4:11-12 since God so loved us, we ought to love one another
if we love one another, God is in us and His love is made complete in us

heartburns and heartaches no longer to strive?
i’m pickin up good vibrations
He’s givin me excitations
ah my my what elation
ah my my what a sensation
i need Him like an abalone fisherman needs to seek and dive