My Car - a poem

My car smiles at me
as I walk out the door to death

I love my car,
I know it is wrong to love something so material

But, my car is fast, it is sleek
It is fun to share the road with,
It gives me a taste of lost youth

I smoke - but only at the table in my garage
Not in my house, not at my work

When I go from my house to my garage
My car smiles laughs at me

My car is not stupid,
I on the other hand...

•  Tips for quitting

  the time has come, and it is now, I gotta stop.  And when I saw my car laughing at me tonight, I knew it was time. Good night all.

  by dansk47 on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 11:01:51 PM PDT

•  My Audi is fast, is sleek, and

  its rims are filthy.

  Ten years together, yet
  I do not bathe it anymore,
  as it refuses to take
  me to parties where I might
  smoke. The Audi
  knows that doesn't happen
  when we are at home,
  together.

  One of us filthy, the other one
  clean and smoke-free.

  by begone on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 11:15:55 PM PDT

  •  P.S. Good for you, dansk47 n/t

    by begone on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 11:17:04 PM PDT

    •  Thanks begone! n.t

      by dansk47 on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 08:49:26 AM PDT

•  Rec'd because...

  Well, because it ain't fucking bad.

  by Fishgrease on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 11:22:09 PM PDT

•  My car poem.

  I like your car poem and dug deep into my notebooks for this one, written after my 1994 ford escort died being rear ended by a republican driving a SUV in late 2006 (a little whiplash and I haven't been able to afford a car since,  being that I'm in a no-fault state and am a poor graduate student)

  sigh

  ----------------
  Death of a Ridgerunner
  ----------------

  It was there when it was
  too cold to bike
  but not cold enough
  to need a working heater
  (which was constantly broken)
  defrosting the front window with
  a mug of coffee that now sports
  a sheen of city soot as
  I wait at the bus stop

  by SnowCountry on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 11:33:38 PM PDT

  •  As I was telling

    borkitekt downthread, it's funny all the former escort owners showing up. I had an '86.

    by dansk47 on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 08:52:46 AM PDT

•  i can't write poetry for shit....

  but speaking of cars, I get to drive my brother's 4 month old BMW coupe for about 3 months while he is away and I feel like I'm 16 all over again!

  I think I'll cry when I have to give it back!

  by michael1104 on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 11:48:12 PM PDT

  •  and your feelings are not poetry?

    come on, it's not that hard.

    by borkitekt on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 03:03:12 AM PDT

•  But is it fast enough so you can fly away?

  I remember we were driving, driving in your car
  The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk

  :)

  ..............................

  I quit smoking 8 years ago.  Cold turkey.  It stuck on the second try.  Don't get discouraged if it doesn't work at first.  It's definitely worth it being smoke-free.  For too many reasons to count - money, health, food tasting better, etc...

  Good luck!

  :)

  Oh, and thanks for recommending Ed Abbey's "Brave Cowboy" to me a few weeks ago.  It's my current 'lunch break' book.  Really good stuff...

  by Hardhat Democrat on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 12:40:08 AM PDT

  •  Tracy's always wonderful, isn't she?

    Thanks for the video, Hardhat. A respite.

    by begone on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 12:54:26 AM PDT

    •  Yes! Always! :)

      But I should put it "on the record", that a 'fast car' is not at all necessary to "get [...] out of here".

      I did it via Amtrak.

      Just sayin'...

      ;-P

      by Hardhat Democrat on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 12:59:04 AM PDT

•  The Marvelous Toy

  With apologies to Tom Paxton for the truncation:

  When I was just a wee little lad full of health and joy,
  My father homeward came one night and gave to me a toy.
  A wonder to behold, it was, with many colors bright,
  And the moment I laid eyes on it it became my heart's delight.
     It went "zip" when it moved and "bop" when it stopped,
     And "whirr" when it stood still.
     I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.

  What's really amazing to me is that my computer does the same darned things!!  :-)

  by RickWn on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 12:53:15 AM PDT

•  I smoke like a chimney,

  but I do like poetry.
  And cars are okay, too,
  I guess.

  My other addiction
  is DKOS.
  Is that bad for my health?
  Sometimes
  it makes my blood pressure rise.

  (Anyway, good for you, dansk47. I vow to give up smoking one of these days.)

  by Libertaria on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 01:45:21 AM PDT

•  det har måste vara min familj äntligen.

  Its so funny how things can resonate so closely to ones life while everything is yet so remote. As SnowCountry mentions his car, my girlfriend had an Escort from the same year that was totalled by a motorcyclist who ran a stop sign this past summer in Rättvik/Dalarna. Luckily, as he hit my side, he hit right between the front tire and window- otherwise I would have gotten a helmet right into my head or he would have flown over the car. Either way, I was lucky- I was looking at a sign to my left when my window exploded- only got a few cuts that disappeared after taking a shower, and since it was my summer vacation, I'd grown a beard for the first time, and that protected me somewhat. Got glass everywhere though- hair, ears, pockets, shoes... The kid was fine even thought they took him to the hospital. Sort of freaky, he looked just like Harry Potter, it was so surreal. And we were just about to start the new book.

  Dansk, you know, while I was stateside I actually took a poetry translation course with Lars Gustafsson- a swedish writer who is totally incredible. We worked on Bertil Malmberg's poem Dårarna:

  Jag vet ej vad de känna, vilka ting
  de söka, där de röra sig i ring,

  och icke vad de tänka, där de stå
  orörligt stilla, medan molnen gå.

  No poem, but here is my car song- from Built to Spill:

  The song includes at least another one of my loves, the cello, which I've been really missing since I don't have one here in Sweden. That and I've been thinking of trying to by an old Fender, maybe a Jazzmaster.

  Also, the old Escort, it had been with us on road trips to Umeå in the Swedish north for a real midsummer wedding a Swedish friend I introduced to another Texan. It had been to Gotland, almost went to go see Ingmar, and through Norway, down the Oslo fjord, past a little town called Søgn.

  by borkitekt on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 03:29:27 AM PDT

  •  So funny all the escort talk!

    I had an '86 Fort Escort wagon for about 10 years and it was the best damned car, just a little tank.  Drove it to death. I got it in Alaska and that thing handled so well in the snow and ice - it amazed me. Then I got a pathfinder, and discovered truly how well that car handled!

    And keep the music in your life! A Jazzmaster would be sweet. Did you read the diary a week or so ago about the Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin? It was beautiful. (Mr. d has three banjos, one electric (strat) and two acoustic guitars, two dobros and one mandolin, we love our music)

    by dansk47 on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 08:48:19 AM PDT

    •  sounds awesome!

      I have all sorts of guitar and etc meta going on in claude's diary right now.

      And, if you can believe it, my gf just bought a Danish sofa set for the housing admin here- really nice, Jakaranda and black leather 50's-ish design.

      by borkitekt on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 10:23:09 AM PDT

  •  Psst..

    her car, but yeah.  Escorts are such funny cars.  They aren't particularly handsome or charming, but they run until they're forced to stop and so we love them.

    by SnowCountry on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 11:12:57 AM PDT

    •  well, that was actually quite amazing

      my fam stateside had two fords that were lemons, I really expected my gf's to croak any minute but it ran well for the six years after I came over in 02. I was very impressed to say the least.

      by borkitekt on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 12:54:47 PM PDT

•  Reminds me of ...

  "For Elsie," the last two lines:

  No one to witness and adjust,
  No one to drive the car.

  Of course he was talking about leading this country, not driving, really.

  by godotnut on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 11:49:22 AM PDT