January 29, 2007
A poem…
A vinyl clad cutie
with a boxy back end
Loud and Fast
a comforting friend
Dark Green Chariot
that carried me home
The once fragrant newness
Now a memory long gone
A cloth girded tank
with horses to spare
A 70’s classic
with 2-55 air
Powder blue refuge
from summer time heat
Watching the cars go
from a rear facing seat
Petite but sturdy
on the mountains and flats
A passing of age
that came about fast
though sometimes rocky
an enduring friend
Still near the family
but this too will end
For though these were favorites
of my youth and my age
like all car stories
I’ll turn one more page
The good times and bad times
still up in the air
While I am living
My station wagon affair.
This poem was inspired by 3 of the station wagons that are tied to significant memories. The first was my father’s evergreen Volkswagen Squareback. The second was my mother’s sky blue 70’s ford LTD wagon (With rumble seat, of course), and the third my green Ford Escort LX station wagon. I could have added a stanza about a powder blue squareback that I almost fell out of going around a corner one time, but that was a friends car. These wagons brought me joy. They took me to the lake, to the mountains, to family reunions, . . . to life. They are part of who I am and who I will be.