Once again my car battery died. How many starts are they supposed to give? It seems like I only get a dozen or so. After I get a jump I drive around trying to put a charge on it - but it dies again the next day. There's a Chief Auto Parts less than a mile away. But I don't have the money to buy a battery. And can I really carry a car battery a mile? My retired neighbor sees me with my car hood up and we talk. He offers me a ride to the auto parts store. Further: He will lend me the money for a new battery. The store clerk has pity and lets me have a military discount for their cheapest battery. Since my neighbor drove me down - I didn't bring my old battery for trade in. The clerk calls it a 'core' which confuses me. After I get my new battery in I drive to an alley a few blocks away a leave my old battery there. I don't know how many degrees of global warming were added due to my act of pollution. The battery was still there two weeks later. A month later. It was quite some time before I noticed it was gone. A few months later I needed another one.
Hugh Blanton combs poems out of his hair during those moments he can steal away from his employer's loading dock. He has appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, The Scarlet Leaf Review, The Rye Whiskey Review, and other places. He lives in San Diego, California. Twitter: @HughBlanton3