"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.