J.W. Burleson photo / Boquillas del Carmen, Coah.

PHB

My photo
Brooklin, Maine, United States
We own a 1975 GMC Sierra Grande 15 in Maine and a 1986 Chevrolet Custom Deluxe 10 in West Texas. Also a pair of 1997 Volvo 850 wagons. Average age in the fleet is 28 years--we're recycling. I've published 3 novels: THE LAW OF DREAMS (2006), THE O'BRIENS (2012), and CARRY ME (2016). Also 2 short story collections: NIGHT DRIVING(1987) and TRAVELLING LIGHT (2013). More of my literary life is at www.peterbehrens.org I was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for 2012-13. I'm an adjunct professor at Colorado College and in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. In 2015-16 I was a Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The Autoliterate office is in Car Talk Plaza in Harvard Square, 2 floors above Dewey Cheatem & Howe. SUBSCRIBE TO THE AUTOLITERATE DAILY EMAIL by hitting the button to the right.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Jim Christy & a 1939 Plymouth

                                                           1939 Plymouth Road King, uncomposted.

AUTO-BIOGRAPHY

I wanted to see old broke cars.
Especially round ones like Edwardian 
Sofas, with side-view mirrors
Dangling like arthritic hands.
There I am at four,
Excited in the back seat. Parents
In front, pleased their kid
Needs no amusement parks, 
Ice cream cones. The 1939
Plymouth long landfill under Philadelphia
Airport runway. Parents long ashes, both.
Me, awed, laughing, pointing
At comic Studebakers like camels
Resting on their axles, rusted, broken-
Tooth grilles grinning back.
A Kaiser-Fraser with one sun visor
Turned down like a man who'd 
Shaved off an eyebrow.
Old broke cars with running boards
For the little tramp to jump upon
And steal a ride, and him and it
To ass-and-tea kettle clatter
Down the long road
From there
To here.
                               ---Jim Christy, 
                                   from his collection Marimba Forever, published by Guernica Editions, 2010.




Posted by autoliterate at 9:50 PM

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