Detroit Jurassic

Joseph V. Danoski

Old Pontiac rolling down the road

Like a dying dinosaur;

A wounded classic out of the past,

Whose engine’s lost its mighty roar.

The sleek design of a bygone breed,

Still alive for one more ride;

A survivor in these changing times,

Detroit Jurassic built with pride.

Roll back the years to a golden age,

Before cheap and foreign made;

When dragster racing was all the rage,

And leather jackets made the grade.

Old Indian rattling up the road

In a battered Cherokee;

He once was a weekend warrior,

Now last stand with a broken knee.

Life was muscle cars and lover’s lanes,

Drive-in theaters and hot rods;

Cool were the rebels without a cause,

Racing the clock to beat the odds.

Whether 6 cylinder or V8,

2.2 or 4 at best;

We pushed production to cutting edge,

And put the limits to the test.

Old factory closing in our town,

Laying off two-thousand men;

We fade away into better days,

To be remembered now and then.

We fade away into yesterdays

Of time was and remember when.

Joseph V. Danoski, Dojonaki05@Netscape.Net and dojonaki05@aim.com, lives happily on the plains of his imagination in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Under the pen name “Jonathan Konrad,” he published his first poetry chap book, Shock Waves: Letters from the Edge, in 1987. It has been favorably reviewed and is available from the poet for $6.95. Many of his poems have also been published in his city newspaper, The Berlin Reporter, and, by request—for the 1997 Berlin Centennial—he delivered his poem “The City Built from Trees” at City Hall. Preferring speculative fiction, the author also loves writing letters and essays, playing music, gardening, and stargazing. Publications have appeared in Penny Dreadful, Pivot, Psychopoetica (UK), The Nocturnal Lyric, The Quest (India) and The Aurorean.