our new car! and . . .

 a nightmarish drive

we go to get a new car,

and spend almost 3 hours at the dealership,

even though they had the car for us

and they were expecting us,

about 45 minutes of good information shared,

necessary paperwork done,

a short test drive,

within 2 hours of down time,

nothing happening but the afternoon turning into night,

and countless employees moving from here to there

with no purpose discernible to us,

by the time we get the keys and the vehicle,

the salesman, nice as can be, hurries through

what he knows of the practicality of driving the car,

but I cannot hear it,

I can not learn it,

since I have nothing left after hours of waiting,

at the end of an already long day,

I start to drive away, stop,

and figure out the controls to defrost the foggy window,

the car purrs and would be wonderful

if it were not raining hard and the sun were still out,

30 miles of rush hour traffic on the interstate toward home,

visibility more a hope than a reality,

the lines on the road but hints,

I feel best when I follow a car’s red lights in front of me,

trucks pass with the arrogance that size and height can allow,

throwing their discarded water across my laboring windshield wipers,

the rain increases, many cars before me flash their blinking hazard lights,

I don’t yet know how to turn mine on,

I won’t even distract myself to figure out the radio

the salesman turned on to some station,

no intelligible comfort and distraction to the sounds,

just one more input into my overworked sensorium,

my wife somewhere ahead of me in our other electric car,

the challenge of darkness and rain even harder for her,

as I approach our house, I see lights on,

then her car in the carport,

then her outside, waiting for me, hoping for me,

I feel the joy of being back together,

with each of us surviving this nightmarish drive,

the joy of a new plug-in Prius Prime

awaits a new day to be savored.

by Henry H. Walker

October 31, ‘22