Stalled out ⚙️
It stalled out again
and again. My dad, patient,
waved the cars behind me
around us. I swore by then
I’d broken the manual
transmission, certain
I’d shifted my last gear—
until with a laugh we saw
I was stuck in second.I’m a little bit like that old civic;
I can have a little spunk, sure,
but I have to check in at neutral
first.
I keep thinking about how our old lives ended up in the “new normal” and now we’re having to create yet another new “new normal” that somehow combines the way things were with the way things became. We’re all trying to marry those halves of ourselves these days, and for me, I realize how much I need to take things slow. And start from neutral.
This note to self was written on July 19th, 2021, but was inspired by a vivid memory of a summer day in 2006 or 2007.
In other news, I’m still thinking about how cool it would be to drive a little pink Vespa around town. What do you think: adorable or horribly dangerous? Perhaps both?