SoMa Literary Review - Slowing Down

Slowing Down

By Hunter Austin

Every time I drive through the rainbow tunnel away from San Francisco

I think of my father’s commute and his sapphire blue Gran Torino Sport

accelerating out of the first banked curve

How it stabilized the tire lean and cab gravity

sitting me back upright

You could see his relaxed joy of driving

One finger in the ten o’clock crook of the steering wheel

The other hand bracing forearm and elbow in the open window’s space

His bicep bouncing a bit when he hit the gas

My breath still held from the tunnel

His slight grin

My wide eyes

The first time taught was on that curve

Heart crowding throat scared

“Step down lightly on the gas when you feel the lean”

Knowing something works while watching someone do it

is not the same when you’re in the driver’s seat

I was too young to feel the fear of my own doubt

Our safety caught in my coordination

He chose trust

so I did

“That’s it kid, you got it…nothing to it heh? I knew you could do it.”

My smile

Our pride

I am older now

than when he taught me this subtlety

Old enough to appreciate

what there is in one moment

of even a memory

Hunter Austin - born 1955 in Brooklyn, New York . Hunter started writing poetry and prose at the age of forty-six; he is now fifty-two and resides in Crockett , California , across the street from the C & H Sugar Refinery. His poetry has been published in the Listen and Be Heard. In 2007, his Novella Cherry's Last Trick was a finalist in the Quarterly West novella competition and a semi-finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom award.