Gizmo's Salvage
by Roger Jones


Memory is mushy, like pie, but this old yard
fences in acres of gnashed, ground-up,
masticated, rusting, cars forever. How many
mishaps would spill out if each grill could speak?
Not far from where I hunt the impossible pressure plate,
a machine like a piledriver comes down hard
to squish into flat metal wafers old models that once
sleeked showrooms. The stooped man in greasy overalls
governs his nation of silent traffic, headlights gone,
grills busted, seats plucked out, doors gaped wide
and yawing, where only a Doberman at night barks
behind wood walls, in the soupy vapor light.






Copyright © 2024 by Red River Review. First Rights Reserved. All other rights revert to the authors.
No work may be reproduced or republished without the express written consent of the author.