The Guy in the Clutch T-shirt

Somewhere between spicy IPA & some flavorless Schlitz a car is born idling both feet ready to burn rubber – both pedals options on the constant road

& the voice is a burnout
popped out of granny gear all the way to red line
back to idle of repose

Can we start already?
or is this just where
it gets interesting
life by the metaphor
Racing stop to stop
the illusion of automatic
when it’s all goddamn work

only the transmission
does it for you
in the barrel chest
of a mean street machine running like a mouth
full of poem & spite

Racing & winning so far
ahead sometimes it feels
like living in last place

Tony Brewer is from Bloomington, Indiana. His latest books are Pity for Sale (Gasconade Press, 2022) and psithurism (Last Lights Press, 2022). He is also a frequent collaborator with experimental music collective Urban Deer. More at tonybrewer71.blogspot.com.