Ozymandias II

I met a guy I used to know, who said:

"You take your '57 Karnak, now,

The model that they called their Coop de Veal

That had the pointy rubber boobs for bumpers—

You take that car, owned by a nigger now

Likelier'n not, with half its chromium teeth

Knocked down its throat and aerial ripped off,

Side stitched with like bullets where the stripping's gone

And rust like a fungus spreading on the fenders,

Well, what I mean, that fucking car still runs,

Even the moths in the upholstery are old

But it gets around, you see one on the street

Beat-up and proud, well, Jeezus what a country,

Where even the monuments keep on the move."

Howard Nemerov was born on February 29th, 1920 in New York. He died of cancer at his home in University City, Missouri on July 5th 1991.