El Camino

An old muscle car, polished   Metallic blue, electric   Street lamps reflected   Distorted rainbows   Streak   Block by block   As love is burned by the gallon   El Camino drives   A man, seemingly real   Evident   Behind half-rolled window   Lips full and adept   Arm hung tanned and muscled   Scars   Callused hands   A Wink   Scoping the scene   Where young men hasten   Tough streets crossed   A door mobbed   The Boy’s bar haven   Hands in tight pockets   Searching for I.D.   Looking over their shoulders   Voiding hidden lots where: El Camino.   New faces   New prey   Boom-boom the club   Lazy loose necklaces and cut-off tees   Unbridled body piercings   The impression of assets   Hangin’ to the left or to the right   In washed out jeans   Summer nights spent   Tippin’ down swill   While searching, indifferently   New among the crowd   Heat, skin, and the music monotony   Erotic elixir of cologne, sweat, and longing   For a real man…To take…the wheel...   El Camino?

The passenger grabs the handle   The door unlocks, the ride begins   Empty bottles clink   About the feet   Thick thighs, knowing grin   El Camino hums   Lucinda Williams songs   Frayed speakers, poetic truths, deliberate grin   El Camino looks vulnerable   Dressed in clothes sported   Since high school   A man, a runaway, a friend, a lover   A Liar.   Small town smile   Effectively distracts   El Camino’s rust   His cracked and exposed   Metallic blue   His empty terms   Endearing the moment   Unfixed in time

El Camino rolls   Promises the hour   Forever on the run   His speed always going   His road always hugging   His race always rolling   His passion always passing   Hours dissipate   Steam   The door releases   A baffled passenger   Yellow like caution   Holding his head    Where an ache begins   Red and red and red   Where green should have been  

The bar scent still linger   The 3 AM stench   The passenger void   All contracts discharged   Idling thirst   Idling flesh   The 3AM stench

Another double-take   Another passenger   An ominous car with headlights blazing    A man, seemingly real   Evident    Behind half-rolled window   Lips full and adept   Arm hung tanned and muscled   Scars Callused hands   A Wink   The Passenger grabs the handle

What drives El Camino   Is indifference   Mean   Thirst   Escape   Hands layin’   Lips wanderin’  Charm like old school sleaze   El Camino treads    The cycle of Man   One night stands   At 1 AM.   At 2 AM.   At 3AM.   Smiling teeth   Muscle car wink   Consumes youth   Exhausts fruit   Crosses red lights   Obscurity of night   Cruisin’, then usin’, then losin’   Real.