Cruising

By Bob McAfee

I fight against the years,

wear my memories like exhausted Hawaiian shirts,

my body, a putty-colored afghan.

I remember at sixteen, driving my mother’s

old Ford, cruising, looking for love. This night,

as in many nights this year, I sit before my

computer screen, Zooming, appreciating this

one way of maintaining contact without touch,

every aspect of my life, controlled by fear.

Tonight – I remember breaking up with my

first real girlfriend, how sad I was but how

liberated I would grow to be. Borrowing

my fraternity brother’s silver Corvair – park

on the beach at Daytona with a tri delta –

the tide comes in. I’m in desperate straits –

thank God for the jeep with a winch,

pulls us to safety. Where is that jeep today

as the tide continues to rise? Heading down

to Atlantic City in a Carolina blue VW rabbit,

red-headed nurse who wants to try her luck,

cuddles in beside me, rolls the loaded dice.

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Bob McAfee is a retired software consultant who lives with his wife near Boston. He has written nine books of poetry, mostly on Love, Aging, and the Natural World. For the last several years he has hosted a Wednesday night Zoom poetry workshop. Since 2019, he has had 190 poems selected by 75 different publications, including one poem in "The Rush". Two poems nominated for Best of the Net. His website, 

www.bobmcafee.com, contains links to all his published poetry.