ok, it IS Friday somewhere. right now, it's still Friday where i am. and i happened to be reading through a book that was given me when i retired ... Good Poems for Hard Times (poems selected by Garrison Keilor ... the goofy looking guy from Lake Woebegone on NPR). ;) and i found this poem. not written by me, so all you mealy-mouthed critics can relax ... this is by a real makes-his-living-by-writing-poems poet. ;) anyway, the tone and subject fit in with vanagons, and especially those who have swapped engines. ;) and super especially those who have lived through northeast winters with vanagons that had their engines swapped. or anybody who has lived through a northern winter. ;) unca joel
Starting the Subaru at Five Below Stuart Kestenbaum
After 6 Maine winters and 100,000 miles, when I take it to be inspected I search for gas stations where they just say beep the horn and don't ask me to put it on the lift, exposing its soft rusted underbelly. Inside is the record of commuting: apple cores, a bag from McDonald's, crushed Dunkin' Donuts cups, a flashlight that doesn't work and one that does, gas receipts blurred beyond recognition. Finger tips numb, nose hair frozen, I pump the accelerator and turn the key. The battery cranks, the engine gives 2 or 3 low groans and starts. My God it starts. And unlike my family in the house, the job I'm headed towards, the poems in my briefcase, the dreams I had last night, there is no question about what makes sense. White exhaust billowing from the tail pipe, heater blowing, this car is going to move me, it's going to take me places. |
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