Outside Elkhart

Dan Carpenter

 

 

Along U.S. 31 in the blast of a summer mid-morning

I'm cockpitted with a rock tape and AC

And suddenly joined on the dirt road rightward

By one of the wheeled black boxes of the Amish -

The sleek horse pounding, wood spokes a blur

Big brother wielding the reins like a Corvette jockey

For the pigtailed girl in a mint green dress who squeals

As though hers were the first excitement

His the world's only manly skill . . .

            I'm easing past 60, the parallel can't last

            Their frenzy fades to tableau, to outline, to nothing

            And a million sullen asphalt miles farther down

Will blindside me again and again

 

 

Copyright 2007 by the Tipton Poetry Journal.

All rights remain the exclusive property of the individual poet and may not be used without their permission.

 

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