Get In the Car!

Photo by Sara Hamza on Unsplash

I don’t care about cars

How much they cost and how fast they drive

But

At 6, I fall asleep in my dad’s red Alpha Romeo

(Or sometimes pretend)

Dry heat on a cold night

Fogging up the windows

On our way home from somewhere

My dad carries me into the house

And tucks me into bed

At 16, my uncle calls us

All dressed up and nowhere to go

But it doesn’t matter

With the right mixtape recorded off our favorite radio station

Or a CD with pirated songs and titles smeared across the shiny disc

Or a playlist your crush put together for you after the fourth date

And you drive with just the beautiful light and the sky and the music

Trying to figure out if they chose the songs for some hidden message

And then sharing a pint of the expensive ice cream with cheap plastic spoons

After the inevitable breakup

At 18, I buy freedom

An ancient baby-blue Ford I bapt…