RUNNING AROUND LISTENING TO THE CARS
Up to my ears in work, a family
in the background, those late 80’s
found me in a metallic blue Camaro
listening to “Drive” and driving I was
the streets of Woodstock and roads of Oxford,
especially from spring ‘86 to fall ‘88
Stopping for humid night tennis
and other evil games that dropped
my weight to 150 …. I was cruising
for trouble, knew it and was so besotted
by MLC that I cared not at all
I was spinning out in doughnuts of lust,
returning from Buffalo bars or single
mother shacks, readings of poetry too
I wore cowboys boots, electric blue sweater
under pearl-gray sports coat
I was Alice Munro’s younger brother,
the bad one …. Married, department head,
stern pedagogue, but tilted with this other side
that howled at full moons and wanted more,
much more than what easily came
No-one said a word, at least to me, of warning
until at last the vortex started sucking them in too
Then came the howls, admonitions,
clenched teeth or wet eyelashes
I kept the Camaro, gave my wife the K-car,
and drove off alone
but only for a while
Author’s Bio
BARRY BUTSON has published many poems and five collections, including his first, East End Poems, which won the Milton Acorn Award in 1998/99 and his most recent, Down at the End of the Street. His work has been broadcast on both the CBC and BBC. He lives in Woodstock, ON.