In the hammersmith garage (1986)

  

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

1986 Lawrence Ks 

Published in Allegheny Review 

William Herbert Carruth poetry prize KU 1987