Salvage
by Scott Slemmons
I got this old car
runs great
but it's got no hood ornament
Some beer-gorged 'kicker
twisted it off soon after I bought it
so I've always wished I
had another hood ornament to
replace it
Something eye-catching
like a rocketship
or a cow skull
or a sphinx
So today I'm prowling the junkyards
in the scalding summer heat
choking through clouds of dust
fingers scorched by hot rusted metal
The yard is a maze of discarded freezers
towers of cubed cars
sandblasted trailers
ancient cranes
& miles of useless pipes & tubing
There is a mountain of broken toys
a desert of smashed radios
a canyon of fenders & tailgates
The old man who runs the yard
has dyed red hair
& wears overalls with
"Keep on Truckin'" patches on them
Inside his grungy office
he keeps faded photos of his grandkids
& sells unreadable romances
& scratched 45s
After 96 minutes
I find my hood ornament
It is a howling wolf
carved from glacial ice
so cold it will never melt
It reflects & refracts
every beam of light into spiraling rainbows
The old man sells it to me for
a buck-fifty
& I drive away
with a cool breeze in my face
© 1999 by Scott Slemmons