Trailers lined up to receive their boats along the Mississippi River in late October. (Photo by John Gaddo)
Poetry: Boat Trailer Blues
November’s a time of drizzle and cold.
Again, I have waited too long
to take out the boat, dented and old,
a job for the stupid but strong.
The boat trailer lies like a sleeping black cur,
next to the garage in the mud.
Unwilling to rise, it gives me a sneer,
its brake lights the color of blood.
My gloves are too thin as I crank up the jack;
the burrs on the handle cut skin.
And now I’m aware of a pain in my back,
the vertebrae twisting like tin.
Settling in for the winter. (Photo by Nancy North)
Three or four whacks with a hammer,
a handful of stinky brown grease,
a quick finger-jammer, I swear, and a stammer,
the hitch is connected with ease.
The half-empty tires are frosty, I see.
They suck at the mud as they turn.
In contrast, the bearings no longer turn free;
they slowly have started to burn.
Three colored wires atangle;
one light refuses to glow.
The other one shines, but at a right angle,
and now it has started to snow.
Exhausted and frozen, I am aware
that still I am only half done.
I hope that the next part is better than last year,
when down the boat ramp I did run.
This is the last time; never again.
I’d rather be home snug in bed.
To get all this pleasure out of November,
I’ll visit my dentist instead.
“Boat Trailer Blues” is from the book Things that Flow: Humor, Poetry, and Essays about Rivers and Life, self-published through iUniverse, available through Amazon. © Ken Lubinski
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Contributor
Poet and essayist Ken Lubinski is retired from the US Geological Survey. Former Brownsville-area residents, he and his wife Sara now live in Arizona. They make regular sojourns north, exploring old haunts along the Upper Mississippi River, including visits to the Root River Valley.
Root River Current’s coverage of literary arts is made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.
