Next door the neighbor is trying to fix his car door
It broke when he left it in gear,
Door open,
and went to get the trash
It rolled down the drive way, hitting the retaining wall with a cla-
clang
He tried to stop it when broke his arm
And the woman who was hired to take care of the ailing father, ninetyfour blind and deaf, world war two vetran,
tried to tell him to go to the hospital
Right around the corner

Instead he came over to our house and borrowed some
Over the counter painkiller
After he returned to the house next door my mother realized that it was
expired

But, he must have lived through it because there he is now
watching a workman attach a silver car door to a
shiny gold car
The guy with the lug wrench looks a little shady
and has two packs of cigarettes in the front seat of his beat up truck

and I wonder who said that even semi darkness was bad
who thought not seeing was something to fear
because it seems to me even if the sun is shining readily,
glinting on the gold car’s hood

we are still here trying to stop it from rolling down the drive way
then breaking our arm