A first draft for writing class. The assignment was “something that keeps you up at night,” and is a topic that’s come up before (see #4).
———–
there are two ways out of a submerged car.
the first requires the tool, a tapper,
a squat metal spike
made just for this, for the window
and i have one,
a trade-show giveaway with an ink-stamped logo
what kind of company would?
shoved in the glovebox which holds everything but gloves.
the glass will give easily, i’m told,
spill its icicles on me
lacerated by freedom
i will follow the path of bubbles
and hope the trail doesn’t go cold.
the second requires nothing but
patience:
let the car swallow all the water
it can, and
kiss the ceiling while i wait.
and the door will swing open
for my exit
like a dream.
calm. efficient. mind like water. quick
but
neither method has much to say about
the backseat buckles, the screaming, the
swimming lessons she never finished, the
legs that will have to work
for three of us,
no four,
the
arms too small to carry the world.
10 Responses to “plan a and plan b”
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Asides
» It’s National Procrastination Week (who comes up with these things?), and in honor of people like me who like to celebrate NPW all year long, here’s a good article.
» Best packaging. Did your headphones come in a sweet case? See a bottle of tea in another country that stood off the shelves? Well, that’s kind of a silly question, but I’ve come this far with the blog challenge… I did get this Gelaskin for my laptop. If you see me in the coffee place, say hi.
» When did you get your best rush of the year? Here.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Oh, powerful. O my.
This poem had me holding my breath. Wonderful. Really powerful.
Mags
On the bus home yesterday (I left the bike at work), I made a point of reading the directions on the bar you’re supposed to lift before opening the window outward, and wondered what I’d do if my side was the one settled on the bottom.
I could fantasize about being noble and letting the people panicking above me find their ways out the other side while I waited democratically and possibly drowned. That lasted until I thought of the two-year-olds at home.
I’m not sure I would have thought about it in precisely the same way if I hadn’t found out recently about the suicide of one of the men on my fathers-of-twins board.
One of your best, RM. Really amazing.
But now…oh great…it’s going to keep ME up at night too.
Wow.
a new thing to worry about…
Sometimes I forget how freeing (and incredibly limiting) it is to be worrying mostly about big picture issues instead of precious souls in the back seat.
Oh! My heart started beating faster just reading this.
On one of our drives this summer from rain-soaked Arkansas to rain-soaked Kansas we noticed that the rivers were spilling over their banks and at one point the water was nudging the edge of the highway. My youngest asked “What would we do if…?” So we talked through each step and pulled out the window tapper in the glove compartment until her eyes were not quite so wide. All will be well RM. But worst case scenario…adrenaline does amazing things!
What a beautiful rendering of a horrifying scenario, rm.
Thank you, everyone. It came out in a huge rush.