Dad's First Car

Somewhere in the ‘20s that would have been,

when a man learned about magnetos and mudholes,

when he took care not to break an elbow or thumb

when twirling a crank, carried a cake of soap

for a squeaky fan belt and a pinch of oatmeal

to seal a radiator leak, knew that somewhere

on a back road he’d borrow a fence rail for a jack,

have to back up the steepest hills

when the engine was starved for gas—

small bits of lore from a time long gone,

as he is, but strong in his memory

as he is in mine, lips still moving in some silent language,

still telling me stories I really want to hear.

              © David Black, 2018

Woman hand cranking the car to start it on a rainy day, August 1926
Photo by Infrogmation of New Orleans
from Wikimedia Commons