Spot Writers: Kamikaze Bambi

The prompt this week was to write about a car. I was going to write about my beloved 1989 Camry… until this happened. This story comes to us from Val Muller, author of The Scarred Letter, Faulkner’s Apprentice, and the Corgi Capers kidlit mystery series.

Bambi Kamikaze

By Val Muller

It’s late September, and Autumn is just starting to color the trees

Like the first startling traces of gray in the mirror.

The trees bend across Dry Spring Road,

Enclosing cars in a woodland embrace

That blocks away highway traffic to the north.

It is a commute that sees horses and fields and sometimes cows,

A commute that sees thick mist evaporate in the low morning sun,

That smells of manure and pollen and fireplaces,

A commute that forgets the city is only an hour away.

But the city is close enough to make cars forget

That the woods once owned the road

And may yet again.

And then, a blur of tan,

A spotted white, determined muzzle—

It’s Kamikaze Bambi

Racing my car.

The hanging trees do not care

Whether I swerve over the yellow lines

Into oncoming traffic.

So I continue on the fast, dangerous asphalt

And the tan streak continues toward my car.

Two thundering hoofprints echo against my heart and my door

As I speed onward, leaving a gyrating tan sphere in the rear view mirror,

Recovering from the dangerous high five

Exchanged with my car.

 

The Spot Writers—Our Members:

RC Bonitz: http://www.rcbonitz.com

Val Muller: https://valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: http://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Kathy Price: http://www.kathylprice.com