wrong pickup truck car fight

Morning mist – foto Smith

Friend and Gone

Our near departed
1994 bright red Honda Civic
232,681 mile odometer
dashboard light unshown but thrice
in four years owned
radio ripped out in first week pain
slow oil leak now driveway stain
mismatched headlamps don’t aim quite right
cuz of wrong pickup truck car fight
2 tires leak with the spare unaired
entropically beckons
$700 clutch
$900 front end
$700 catalytic converter
couple hundreds brakes and shakes
bad starter
2 mufflers
broke axle
2 batteries
crunched fender hood 12 hundred
and more galore
plus preprimaried 3 grand
all gots to go
cuz mechanic’s “No”
trumps called-for fix for
$200 control arm bushing
yellow bungee cord closed trunk
and thousand dollar rust
so now our go soon gone
I find she’s friend, belonged
will miss her concert creaks and whistles
groans and twitching
rattles banging sideboard sagging
sliding down the road
but no more money down that hole
as new used car we go
to 2007 Prius flow

(I’ve never had new, while wife’s had many
but that’s in other story)

— Smith, 12.12.12

Near departed – foto Smith