#5200 MSTA

#5200 MSTA

W/ debts to Robert Creely and Denis Johnson


The bums raise their heads
from their knees and smile,
stagger out into the traffic
with arms wide open
saluting wonder and proclaiming beauty
when Denis Johnson's Cadillac drives by

Romanticized in lipstick red reflections
sex waves over the fenders
like the glossiest valentine,
"Back in '74 this blonde outside Alpine
rides me all the way to Phoenix
in a car just like that."

Heroic figures you can't ignore
eighteen and a half feet of '73 Eldorado
five thousand pounds five hundred and one cubic inches
of mighty V-8
power steering power brakes power windows
power ragtop, power power power
on the cusp of emissions laws and gas crises

why not buy a goddamn big car
goddamn big American car,
enter the darkness that surrounds us
with firm purchase,
the few who'll listen to urge me on with drive
keep the top folded back
and find the highway luminous.

W. Joe Hoppe

.............from his book GALVANIZED