NaPoWriMo poem written for the “road trip” prompt at Read Write Poem.
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Beetles and Scorpions
Yellow,
the Volkswagen
chugged from salt flats two
hundred eighty two feet below
the sea.
Roommates -
You with a dad
who fled from Korea
Me with a father who just up
and fled.
Climbing
from the valley -
dead as the textbooks left
behind – up through clover, lupines
poppies.
We stopped,
opened the doors,
cranked up Bob Marley, danced -
Stir it Up, Redemption, Woman
No Cry
We twirled
swayed and stumbled
over a plump scorpion
its once hard carapace shriveled
in death.
We drove
for miles and then
sputtered into Barstow,
leaking oil. We pooled money for
repairs
Next year,
you packed and moved
to Wisconsin. I sold
the Bug, married, had a baby -
A son.
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Lots of atmosphere in this road trip. I travelled across Europe in an orange VW van so it has a certain resonance for me. I like the images of the fathers fleeing and the dead textbooks left behind.
Phew, I’m a V-dub nut too… rings bells!
When my son was a baby we used to take him out for a drive and the old air cooled engine (the noise not the fumes) always put him to sleep.
Oh yeah, dig your poem too!
great….no glitch here…never a glitch in a VW on a road trip….oopŝ had one in Mexico once
A wonderful series of cinquains. Great memories. Where did the years go? Love this line, “dead as the textbooks left behind”!