Separate episodes at the panelbeater’s
left his ninety-eight Fiat Punto
a particoloured motley: red body,
black bonnet, right front hub blue,
the other cowled under dinted dirty white.
A Ferrari sticker on the boot emblem,
the interior a snug perfection: flossy
tassel bobbing by the mirror, seats
of crimped satin. Once, red early,
his iceburn of pure speed pulled
at my body’s every socket, unified
me around a tension shattered
when his bockety suspension rocked me,
dropped me through whooshy space,
leaving me riddled with light – at home,
all gone, utterly nowhere.

Tim MacGabhann is the author of the novels Call Him Mine and How to Be Nowhere, the memoir The Black Pool, the short story collection Saints, and the poetry collection Found in a Context of Destruction.