Getaway Car

My sister’s ’63 Mustang and I were left behind

when she set off for college. Days crawled by

in my sleepy Florida town, as slowly as the rusty

freight train that rumbled through every night at 2.

Time sped up when I kicked that metal beast

into high gear, flying through orange groves,

on narrow country roads to towns even smaller

than mine. Anywhere was better than home,

where my nightgowned mother, fog-brained

on sleeping pills, would greet me after school

with taunts like, You made me sick today.

I swallowed her slurred words much like

the syrupy sweet cola stacked in the carport,

addicted to her disdain and resentments

as she was to her pills. Behind the wheel,

I was in control. As the radio blared

Little Deuce Coupe, I hit the open road shouting

the lyrics into the afternoon’s dazzling sunlight,

wind snapping my ponytail like a flag of freedom,

and raced to put distance between us.

Celia Lawren is the author of the poetry chapbook, Among Dead Things, a chronicle of tragedy and resilience, published by Finishing Line Press. She is the winner of the 2021 Poetry prize awarded by the Knoxville Writers Guild. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in literary journals such as She Speaks: An Anthology of Women of Appalachia, Colossus: Freedom Anthology, Stirring, Catamaran, All Pales 2 Anthology, Arts & Letters and South Carolina Review. Ms. Lawren resides in Knoxville, Tennessee after living many years in the San Francisco Bay Area.