Holes and Vettes

Holes and Vettes



Bar Harbor. Maine. 2022. A baseball field.

Corvettes line up in rows, engines still

For once and owners preening

From their folding chairs, legs poking

Into the same grass that supports Life

Flight helicopters in emergencies

And soccer cleats. This earth withstands so much.



It’s a yearly gathering that’s paused two years

Thanks to global disease, but now the drivers

Are all maskless and showing off

Their cars to locals who wander

Between the lines, marveling.



“I will never be rich enough

To own one,” says a man

in a black t-shirt to a guy

with a firebird red model.



“I thought that too,”

The guy says. “Work hard.

You’ll get there.”



The first man moves to run

A finger across the car’s hood.

The owner flinches like it’s some kind of assault.

“Try hard,” he repeats. “You’ll get there."



We all try hard

To get there,

Inventing monologues

Of worth based on materialism,

Who owns what, how shiny

Our skins are, our hair, our cars,

Houses. We pretend like any of this

Fills up the holes we dig inside ourselves,

Inside the ozone, inside the earth.



Darkening faces,

Double visions. Horror.

The Vettes represent adventure

And freedom. Not being beholden

Despite the car loans required,

The interest rates. The American Debt.



“There are eight

Generations of car here,”

Says an organizer

With a yellow sunhat

Perched on her head.

“This is the car of dreams.”



American Dreams.

And that’s the thing.

Have you ever hit your head

On a poem or a wall

Or something else hard

And realized that your dreams

Aren’t actually yours?



Have you ever felt like you’re falling

Though you are standing still on a field

Surrounded by excess and shiny paint

Jobs and pride, merciless, assaulting,

And begged for stable ground

Before realizing you’re just making holes, too.

Maybe the holes are in a ball field,

Or in the Earth or the ozone

Or maybe—just maybe—in your own damn heart.

Hey, thanks for listening to Carrie Does Poems. These podcasts and more writing tips are at Carrie’s website, carriejonesbooks.blog. There’s also a donation button there. Even a dollar inspires a happy dance in Carrie, so thank you for your support.

The music you hear is made available through the creative commons and it’s a bit of a shortened track from the fantastic Eric Van der Westen and the track is called “A Feather” and off the album The Crown Lobster Trilogy.

While Carrie only posts poems weekly here, she has them (in written form) almost every other weekday over on Medium. You should check it out!

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eric-van-der-westen/the-crown-lobster-trilogy-selection

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