Allegheny Review 1987

In the Hammersmith Garage

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winter prys its icy fingers

into the crack of the huge sliding door,

pointed colors gust in the car exhaust.

greasy joe slides under a car

&wrenches at pipes, straining

not unlike a man milking a cow

in the frost of four a.m. iowa

he loosens a nut that drains the oil

and the cow wobbles

weakheaded. he puts a feedsack over the hood

and gives the back fender a

fleshy, familiar slap

Lawrence, Kansas 1987

published in the Allegheny Review

won William Herbert Carruth Poetry prize at K.U.