"Pole Position"

Written By

Zachary Houle

(No. 4 in the Atari 2600 Poems Series)

When I drove into the other vehicle

Bumped out into the rumble strip

I was stunned

The realism of the surroundings stunning, too (For its time)

For a minute, I forgot where I thought I really was

In Japan,

Racing Needless to say, I didn’t qualify

Condemned to simply restart the race

Try once again to make it beyond that opening lap

There was a reason for my recklessness on the track

On that futile attempt at joining the fray

It was because I’d become distracted:

There were no cup holders in the basement couch To hold the beer

Taking sips with my hands on the stick

Was a challenge I just wasn’t up to,

I suppose

There is one thing that offered relief and respite:

At least, there was no police officer around

At least, not like the other time...

Some stories are left unspoken

Zachary Houle is a music blogger at Invisible Ink Music Blog and has had freelance journalism published in SPIN, the Ottawa Citizen, the National Post, and Canadian Business. His fiction and poetry have been published in literary magazines in Canada, the US, and the UK. He was a recipient of an emerging artist grant from the City of Ottawa, Canada, where he lives, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.