The Biscayne, Bel Air and Impala Chevrolet.

Cheap, medium-priced, and luxury.

I loved spotting these models

On the drive from New Hyde Park to Manhattan.

So, when Dad bought a 1962 white Dodge Dart,

I was disappointed.

But when I realized

The state-of the-art push button nobs

For shifting were on the dash board

The car began to pop in my head.

At age ten,

I was counting the years

Until I could get a license and drive.

Driving became an obsession.

I fantasized about having the deed to a car.

On our Long Island backstreet,

I cried until Dad let me drive.

 I sat on his lap

 Gripped the steering wheel

 We coasted down the pavement. Heaven.       

A month after the car procurement,

Dad told us, “We are going on a vacation.

Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, and Ohio

The safety and reliability of the Dodge

Made the 1962 three-thousand-mile trip happen.

Then in 1963,

The car transported us to Lake Placid,

The honeymoon lodge

For my parents in 1950

Our 1964 vacation picked

 Cape Cod, Boston, Canada.

The Dodge treated us to the last three expeditions

Our family would encounter.

The pain in Dad’s chest

Didn’t encumber his driving skills.

He closeted the cancerous tumor

On his spine.

Yet periodically I noticed his hand

Grab hold of his rib cage

Winced his eyes.

When we moved to the West Coast

The car got sold because widowed Mom

Couldn’t make a road trip from

New York to Los Angeles.

Mom and Dad had loved the car

but when she purchased the 1966 model

It lost its class.

It cried of cheapness as it went

From full size to compact.

Mom wanted the 1962 Dart’s good vibes

Traveling to Los Angeles

Hoping for a sign from my father.