Essay: Reverse Rotation Engines

Our problem is Smokey’s reverse rotation engine • We had proof in the non-smoking tire • We live as water weaving its way down a hill • Virgin Birth is certainly Kerouac’s “unspeakable wisdom of the individual” • There was only one reverse rotation engine in the race • Everything is something else because definition is a small cup • Words are walnut shells • When my days are done, I’ll shrug and say, “You die trying.” • Poetry is science, except poetry assumes we already know it • In the first turn at the Indy 500, Stan’s car broke in half and flew through the air • Most amazing—his steering wheel gone with the front half of the car—he had the presence of mind to dig his fingers into the shoulder harness • Eddie joked that if Stan ever needed to land on him again, he was welcome • All the poetic towering outside our words • If you ever saw one of Sonny’s Pro Mod cars launch, you’d understand Smokey’s engine a lot better • We live in gross agreement, never comfortable what a transit bus truly is • Transportation? • Captivity? • Community? • Weaponry? • We emphasize that which we’ve put into words for a sense of control • We talk to anchor ourselves • We beg each other to confirm • No one wants to read what will take their lives forever • Fundamentalists agree out of fear upon the most popular lies from our past • They allow themselves no receptacle for unpredictable future • Smokey died this year of Leukemia • And Stan was thrown through the windshield of his truck in a head-on collision on a desolate road in Australia—killed for not wearing a seatbelt • Poets behave as if walnut shells have value • We are ill because the tiger is no longer in the bush • A reverse engine throws the crank in the opposite direction • Stan was always quick...even as he talked in front of you, he was planning several turns ahead • Write the poem that will stop war • Don’t change the finish line just because you can • Smokey’s engine threw the crank in the direction of the inside race track wall • What do I owe my children, and what excuse did I accept in not providing it? • The tiger made us smell the air, listen to molecules landing on leaves, and see the world that thrives in shadow • Chris said it was the greatest race he ever saw, and he’s over 70, having attended races every weekend he could find one all his life • The large become football players and kick the small • Good spellers become writers and ridicule the big • Everybody lives as another pollutant until will • Smokey had Stan come to Florida to train him on a reverse rotation engine • Poetry has nothing to do with what it’s about • Death comes to brand you, finally and forever, as defeated • I’ll tell my children I don’t think this has to happen • The only thing that exists is that which is done on will alone • It is hard to defeat the fundamentalists because there is rarely solidarity about the future • Those who do not participate in will are ghosts--pay no attention to them • A reverse rotation engine will roll you naturally into the race track corner • But you need a driver who won’t turn too soon, per instinct, or he’ll crash • If Stan drove the way he’d been trained all his life, he’d put her into the wall • Art must threaten us--tiger in the bush • You want to be alert this second • All poetry is based upon the transit bus before we all agreed it’s a transit bus • The Irish Famine was not about food, but politics • Profound fun is rare because it’s water travelling uphill • Stan rode his custom Harley down to Daytona to visit Smokey during Bike Week • My children hold me responsible for the world, and I am—all of it • Smokey explained to Stan the dangers of a reverse rotation engine • Stan couldn’t qualify at the Copper World because a goddamned oil pump kept the car overheating • But, he wouldn’t accept a substitute car • He’d have to qualify her in a heat race • I think poets ought to write the way Stan took Turn 1 at Indy • Poets ought to write as if tigers could read or a wrong line sends them into a wall at 200 mph • Put the tiger back in the bush if you want to live • Smokey’s reverse rotation engine won the race • Stan started dead last • Coming out of Turn 4, you could see the smoke burning off Page’s right rear tire • No smoke off Stan’s car, so he had more tire at the end of the race • God bless you, Smoke • God bless you, Stan • A nation without poetry never means what it says • Page got hit in the head by a sprint car • Didn’t kill him, but it hurt him pretty bad • God bless you, Page