elegy for my first car

(written ca. 1990)

Left - Right - Left

They taught us in driver's ed

Look three times before you pull out

Left - Right - Left



We were finally alone, just me and Old Blue

She'd come into the family a mere month before my birth

A two-door Cutlass - a good car, they said

But after sixteen years of supporting me

A babe in a carseat

A toddler, peering out the windows

At 7, straining against the oppressive seatbelt

At 10, waging war against my brother

At 14, wistfully testing out the driver's seat...

Old Blue had seen better days



She had aged gradually

We could never pinpoint a date

When she first showed signs of wear

But there she was -

Scratched paint

Peeling roof

Oil-soaked floors

Torn seats

Cracked dashboard

Useless radio

Ignition that needed no key



All mine

All that glorious freedom

All taken for granted



Sixteen years, two months, twenty-four days

After our lives had merged

I should have remembered...



Left - Right - Left

They taught us in driver's ed

Left - Right -

Then I pulled out

And now there's nothing

Left

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