A Man Tonight and His Gran Torino
A man parked under the five-story high cottonwoods today;
these old guardian trees line the road here…
underground water, that’s why.The man’s blue Gran Torino, rear-ended, obviously beloved,
just sat there and ticked while the man ran down the road
to a party somewhere; I know because
the road was lined with cars today as unusual.But, had he looked up
he would have seen strong naked limbs
filled with giant nests way out near the little ends of limbs
and built so well, even with our chinook winds…
ones like the other night that literally made the roof beams
scream and the stairway banister shudder…
even with all la tormenta, the trees keep standing,
and the nests in them, stay.I was dragging bookcases from garage into the house,
wondering how much payload of books can one house bear?
that’s when I saw the man coming back to his car.
I stopped mid-dolly because I heard the silent wind
and saw the limber pine ruffle.But, the man only saw
a giant splat shot down from the sky
and landing ploop all across the shotgun rider
side of the windshield of his Precious.And did he cuss, man,
he did say all the genital words
about twenty times, got in his baby Gran,
slammed the door so hard
the window glass rattled in the channel,
and he drove off mad with the sprung trunk bobbing.But, had we all, I mean he… had he looked up,
he would have seen the raptor with 6 foot wing-spread
landing dead on that nest about four stories up
in the old cottonwood, the elder with bark so thick
it looks like its made of bricks mortared in crazy.If all of us, I mean if he’d… only looked up,
there was a magnitude
that way overwrote the minutiae.
–—————————
“A Man Tonight and His Gran Torino” ©2009 by Dr. C.P. Estés, Creative Commons Copyright/ License.