Road Trip
Gas station cashier
told me my change
was $6.66.
I said,
“I hope that’s a sign
of good things
to come,”
& he replied
with a hearty,
“Hail Satan.”
On the 5th Anniversary of Taking My Daughter to Warped Tour 2013
“Sell out … with me, oh yeah” – Reel Big Fish, “Sell Out”
I was informed at the gate that I wouldn’t need a ticket to enter, because I was accompanying my 14-year-old daughter, & several of her underage friends, so I tried to sell my extra ticket at the door & was almost immediately arrested for scalping, but thankfully, I was not apprehended, which allowed me the opportunity to witness a Stefan Struve doppelganger get knocked out cold in a parking lot moshpit fistfight, while Reel Big Fish covered A-Ha’s “Take On Me.”
the big rig ladder
[found/erasure poem]
some people weren’t cut out
to be cooped up
maybe you’re one of them
you want to climb
the big rig ladder
know what it is like
to swing up into a big rig cab
show it who’s boss
make those 855 cubic inches
of raw diesel power
behave
tame them
drive trains
transmissions
braking systems
move on to the real thing
three tough weeks
on the driving range
& on the road
backing
docking
coupling
reverse serpentines
then taking the big rigs out
on the interstate
you got what it takes
to take on the big rigs?
if you want to climb
the big rig ladder
start with the pros
Source: Ryder Technical Institute mail-in advertisement, 1975
—
Josh Olsen is a librarian in Flint, Michigan and the co-creator of Gimmick Press.
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