Conversations in Car Washes

Illustration by Kun-Sung Chung


CONVERSATIONS IN CAR WASHES


Prudence was a type of dance,
a dance
Without music,
a dance,
solemn, sincere, severe
as are the movements of a man with a lawn mower,
who brags to himself
that is he improving the earth
by destroying the growth of a living thing.
I suppose it was the same way with Henry VIII
when he had women beheaded,
he thought he was improving England.
Some people know the price of milk.
I don’t.
I just keep trying to subdue
the punishment of aging,
and avoiding conversations in car washes.
This always happens to me,
I start off being profound,
end up being silly;
but becoming silly
is always the result of being profound.
In the car wash my lover and I
were discussing the virtue of prudence
and the price of milk.
I never saw her again.


Duane Locke

Posted over on Bedosa