Dad Buys a New Car Every Year

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BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Dad Buys a New Car Every Year

#1 Post by BobBradshaw » 02 Sep 2021, 04:22

Dad Buys a New Car Every Year

Once a year Dad would pull
into the driveway with a new car,

Mom would either sink into depths
of silence impenetrable
even by sonar—or would lock
herself in their bedroom

refusing to come out,
the way she did when hearing
she was carrying my sister--
till after her weeping my father
agreed to a vasectomy.

Dad would run his hand over
a lustrous hood as if stroking
the flank of his boyhood horse
on his father’s Iowa farm

while Mom complained
“We don’t have money
for school supplies or clothes…”


Dad let such admonishments
blow by him like leaves
in a hurricane.

A tow truck once backed up into our driveway,
pulling his newest car off
but cars could be replaced.
What's the big deal, hon? he asked.

I’ll catch a ride tomorrow
over to Plant City’s car lot
and find a vehicle
with so much back seat room
you can stretch out
like you’re in a deck chair
on a yacht.


He laughed,
threw his arm around her,
—and Mom leaning away
like a sapling in a strong gust.

FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Re: Dad Buys a New Car Every Year

#2 Post by FranktheFrank » 04 Sep 2021, 22:05

The love of cars
even when they are unaffordable.
I liked the leaning back like a sapling.
Good one.

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Dad Buys a New Car Every Year

#3 Post by BobBradshaw » 05 Sep 2021, 09:26

Thanks, Frank....

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