Saturday, January 21, 2012

Truck

The transmission has been reluctant about
second gear for many years.

The high squeal of the alternator
digs into my brain like a letter opener.

The wipers don’t work where the
windshield is spider-webbed with
cold weather cracks.

The oil pressure reads zero, always.

This vehicle, it is not a symbol of gradual increase—
no slow move into middle age,
middle tax brackets,
middle everything.

It’s just a piece of shit without even
that flogistin of character that would
offset the stress of driving around in it.

A reminder that I have become, mostly, a
swinger of hammers,
curser of building inspectors,
half-assed libertarian carpenter.

What I said I would never be but can’t get it together to not be.

All I need now is the pony tail
and the A.A. schedule.

Keep comin' back, it works.



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