When lofty inspiration is absent, the mundane will sometimes suffice. I use ‘REDUX’ in this poem’s title because I am likely to pair it with a previously published poem of the same title and a similar theme.

SEVENTEEN MEETS SEVENTY REDUX

Seventy now but once seventeen,
I return his salute but otherwise ignore
the young driver roaring up behind me,
flashing his middle finger before
passing my car in a cloud of dust
on a sharp blind curve.

He clearly hasn't considered
that I could be his worst nightmare,
unbalanced and armed-
one can be both in America-
and I smile to recall the days
I might have followed him home
and scared him half to death
in his parents' driveway.

I’m second from the right in the photo above. If 1972 is the correct year then I am 17 years old, just as I imagine the young driver in my poem to be. I suspect it may have been 1973, however, when all these handsome guys graduated from Huron High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Bob Seger singing ‘Like A Rock’ seems somehow appropriate at this point.

Information on purchasing my book – SLOW RIVERS: Poems from My Sixties – is available at josephneely.com. Please consider ordering SLOW RIVERS through your local bookstore (ISBN 979-8-218-43822-7). SLOW RIVERS is currently in-stock at Stirling Books & Brew in Albion and at a handful of other independent bookstores in Michigan. Shoot me an email for a list of stores at which SLOW RIVERS is usually in stock.: slowriverpoems@gmail.com.

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A new poem every so often.
(No regular schedule right now; life gets in the way.)

Joseph Neely, all rights to original material reserved.