Underneath The Hood

(back)                                                                                          (listen / download)

A couple slabs of concrete
Outside the kitchen window
Four cinder blocks and cardboard
Just below

A beat up old domestic
With a rusted rear view mirror
Couple white walls and a spare
She’s good to go

So next door they stop and stare
Unspoken words saturate the air
They say there goes the neighborhood
Lucky me the only part that’s any good
Is underneath the hood

Got a whole new set of bearings
From a chop shop outside Austin
And a salvage yard exhaust
Up in the Bronx

But the body need not figure
In the measure of a motor
Only proper care that keeps it
Going strong

So next door they stop and stare
Unspoken words saturate the air
They say there goes the neighborhood
Lucky me the only part that’s any good
Is underneath the hood

If the wheels I put in motion
Were shiny fast and new
You bet I’d get the notion
Of racing up and down the avenue

So it’s fortunate and fitting
My wallet won’t allow
A car in which I’m sitting
To stand out too much from the crowd

 - January 2017 -