Korea's in all the news,
but I'm invincible, signed up
for cadets and pilot training,

no worries about the draft.
I'm pushing ninety, rattling
past ninety in an old coupe

on a state road of chug holes,
skunks and armadillo pelts.
I mash the car to ninety-five,

past metal fatigue to a hundred.
There's a hill ahead
and I hope I'll take off,

let it come, I'm in control.
Suddenly, I'm seeing trees,
houses and red barns,

windmills, so many cattle
I'm counting, thousands
when the road curves hard

to Amarillo, and I settle back
and let it fall to sixty,
plenty of time

for the physical exam at noon,
the old car's windows down,
engine approaching hot.