Curious to see if the grass had been cut
At the old Unicoi cemetery one golden afternoon
My car nosedived into a ditch near a driveway.
I trembled, “How am I to get it out again?”
An uncommonly savage little girl in an above ground swimming pool
Mouthed, “Who are you?”
And an antipathetic woman, with glowering eyes and fat rolling on a riding lawn mower
Screamed unheard words over the mower in my direction,
Stomped into her house.
I whispered, “Keep your temper!”
A tall man in a baseball hat and red t-shirt, sweaty in the heat,
His wife from the mower,
Her Tweedle Dee and Dum sisters in matching white shirts, shaved heads, tattoos,
Trooped out the back door and waddled to my car.
Seeing my face, one twin chirped, “We are good people.”
A clinky chain and a black pickup truck
Yanked my car out of the gully.
Relief flooded into me like hot treacle and I thanked them humbly.
And the moral of the story on that golden June day in Unicoi is . . .
I can't tell you just now, but I shall remember it in a bit.
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