spin

i learned to drive at fifteen and a half from a good friend (he was 17)
a Romanian émigré who had been living in Germany but visiting for the summer
(he’s the lead Porsche engineer now working in Torino or maybe he’s back in Stuttgard)
he taught me how to switch gears on my father’s 1972 Corolla
and we took that rusty Japanese machine for a spin
with me grinding away one entire Saturday
for over two hundred and eighty miles—some of those were logged all around the NASA Goddard grounds in Greenbelt (Maryland)
(we were hoping to stumble upon some classified aircraft or humanoid farm)
the thing was orange or . . . maybe it was rust that had spread all over
and on the backseat floor below each individual seat (only 2 people could fit back there)
was a giant deteriorated hole that roared at you
louder and louder with increase in speed and rpms
if you sat back there you’d see the road rushing by
watching the world of asphalt through a couple
of corroded wide-open camera apertures
some friends called it the Flintstone Mobile
some friends laughed that the car had regular brakes
emergency brakes
and
backseat passenger breaks if a real exigency arose
and everyone suddenly had to pull together to stop this rusty nail of a machine
or if trying to outrun a cop car without engaging the red brake lights
(rinse and repeat: this was a rusted out 4-speed 1972 Toyota)
which would give away position location
i’ve never taken a car beyond 100 mph
don’t have anywhere to try that without ending up in prison
knowing my history with good luck (or cops)
and i don’t live anywhere close to the Bonneville Salt Flats
now i hear that manual transmission in cars
(if you can find that in a car at all in the Disjointed States here)
is a huge deterrent to car thieves
apparently they were not taught how to handle a clutch
by the future lead engineer at Porsche
their loss
i say
imagine the choices of fancy machines they would’ve had to snatch
like:
a 1972 4-speed rusted-out hole-in-the-floor disabled speedometer (cable issue?)
orange Toyota Corolla which had to be started in second gear
(first was stripped)
either pushed by a charitable co-pilot friend
or rolling downhill