Happy Monday.
Below is a sestina about one eventful drive through Texas (pictures at the bottom).
Thanks for reading.🫂
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A Tragedy Beneath the Texas Sun
Timothy Nisly
Awakening along the rising sun,
he fills the tank to drive another day.
A little sore from resting on the ground,
our hero clears some wrappers from the car.
From Oklahoma, by the open road,
he shortly crosses to the Lone Star State.
While making timely progress through the state
of Texas with its bright, enduring sun,
he's once again enchanted by the road.
But as the clock winds down the business day,
a strange occurrence now befalls the car
and driver, pedal to the ground.
Despite the pedal forced into the ground,
the engine enters an unconscious state
and barely cresting o’er a hill, the car
kaputs beneath the restless evening sun.
The tow trucks all have packed up for the day,
and leave our hero pacing by the road.
A Good Samaritan pulls off the road
and gives the boy a ride. The bumpy ground
a symbol of this soiled, desperate day.
And won’t you know that no shop in the state—
no kind mechanic ‘neath the Texas sun—
knows just how to repair the stupid car?
Now in the one-light town of Pixar’s Cars,
one Shamrock, Texas, Tim walks down the road
to find a hotel bed before the sun
escapes entirely. Eyes cast on the ground,
he wanders through this armpit of the state.
At least tomorrow is another day.
There is but one agenda for the day:
to make some calls and find a rental car.
But each had been reserved across the state!
A guy named Andy takes Tim down the road
to Amarillo. Ear toward the ground,
he snags a van and drives into the sun.
Two quite eventful days out on the road
leave Tim’s car rusting slowly to the ground.
That restless sun. That God-forsaken state.
Shamrock was a fascinating little town. It’s been a few years, and I’d love to visit again (this time by choice).
A Tragedy Beneath the Texas Sun
Also, I noticed you capitalized A Good Samaritan, which could be a stylistic choice, but now I can't help but wonder if it's Andy's initials...
I'm very impressed 1. that you woke up and chose sestina, and 2. that you wrote such a good sestina. I think you choose good words and made good use of their various meanings. I'll admit "Cars" in the plural form made my eye twitch at first, but it's more than justified. ;)