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

PHB

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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.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Jane Hilberry poem "The Plymouth Valiant"



The Plymouth Valiant

Rain made the windshield wipers work hard
to keep up as someone shouted, or cried.
All fights happened in the car. In those days
when the front seat was one long bench
one of us girls would climb over, wiggle into
the middle, and watch the wet dark hit the windshield.
Those days are vanishing, rearview mirror, rain
on the road, water in the wheel wells.
We will never be, again, the family in the car.
It is already gone, my mother passing, a door,
even our memories of it vanish.  We sang
Swingin’ Along the Open Road and
Dona Nobis Pacem, in a round.  One car,
a Plymouth Valiant, beyond rust now,
in a junkyard, the seats long gone,
rain-soaked sponge and torn vinyl. 


1 comment:

  1. That poem hits home Jane.
    Our 1965 Plymouth Valiant - four door sedan - was that last family car before my older brother left for university.
    Being Air Force brats the car was the only thing that our family owned, in that our houses were all rentals.
    1965: That car had seat belts! We had never seen those before. We even used them from time to time.
    - Reg

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