Own Lot
’72 Camaro of green-blue
(custom coat perhaps?)
on the gravel near the woods
and empty field of former farm
presented only its muscling
presence as no operator
ever appeared within it shadows
hugging the black vinyl
bucket seats, but the owner,
I knew, was a neighborhood
man-teen of dubious repute,
in and out of a few schools,
a mystery under his jean jacket
and boots, years, ten inches
above me, not a threat,
but an alien world whose commerce,
I suspected in decades since,
consisted of cash for pills,
powder, and leaves of grass,
among the accommodating trees verging
the Chevy and its quietly waiting
V-8, which I passed and noted,
left it at that, with youthful
suspension, even as my question bottomed out.
© John Zedolik
John Zedolik has published poems in such journals as Aries, The Bangalore Review (IND), Commonweal, FreeXpresSion (AUS), Orbis (UK), Paperplates (CAN), Poem, Poetry Salzburg Review (AUT), Transom, and in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In June of 2019, he published a full-length collection, entitled Salient Points and Sharp Angles (CW Books), which is available through Amazon. His iPhone is his primary poetry notebook, and he hopes his use of it in regard to this ancient art remains fruitful.
The Loch Raven Review 