Rhonda C. Poynter

start the car

have you ever seen the moon
so high
was the closest to a full sentence
that my father ever
said to me

I remember him saying it
so clearly
we were flying down I-40
and the eighteen wheels were
humming
we were riding with a trucker
who took pity on a handsome
Kentucky boy and his
seven year old daugher

my mama's gone to heaven
I said
like my father said to say it
we're gonna live with my grandma and
I'm going to grow up to be a
nun
so I can pray for Mama all the time

this was years before that movie
paper moon

and the trucker didn't know
which to get out first
his handkerchief or
his wallet

and when we got to Gary
we traded off onto another
driver
who said a girl my age
should be at home and in school
my father said I would have been
if it hadn't been for
Mama drowning

we made
$412 coast to coast and
never had to spend a dime on food or gas
and this was when
money was money

we hit New York City
to see the sights
my father wired most of the money
to my mother
said
We'll do the churches
we bought an old junker
to use for a few days
we'd always ride the trucks back and
be home within two weeks

I sat behind the wheel of
that fifty dollar
piece of motor and floorboard
and
oh Christ shades of days to come
I said

daddy
let me
start the car

from START THE CAR (Warthog Press, 1998)
previously published in freefall (2004)