June 13, 2013My 1930 Model A Ford
I was 14 when my mother gave it to me.
It was made when I was born,
Ford had figured out the perfect shape,
square, with an inside high enough for my head.
The town made me get a license.
Mother wouldn’t have. She didn’t believe in government.
I made my car go as fast as it could in circles.
It tried, like a reluctant dog wanting to please.
My friend Joyce and I danced to Glenn Miller on the radio
while we covered the car with flat green house paint.
I knew it was my car when my mother died,
and it came with me to my new home.
In our seventies, Joyce and I found each other again.
We mourned the car and our good times. Joyce is dead now.
I thought I’d see Joyce again. She seemed so alive in her letters.
That’s how we old people are. We seem so alive and then we’re not.
from #38 - Winter 2012