DEJA VU

ALL OVER AGAIN

AND AGAIN

JANUARY 2ND, 2014 - A POEM FOR TODAY

AMBITION

I got pocketed behind 7X-3824;
He was making 65, but I can do a little more.
I crowded him on the curves, but I couldn’t get past,
And on the straightways
there was always some truck coming fast.
Then we got to the top of a mile-long incline
And I edged her out to the left, a little over the white line,
And ahead was a long grade
with construction at the bottom,
And I said to the wife, ‘Now by golly I got’m!’
I bet I did 85 going down the long grade,
And I braked her down hard in front of the barricade,
And I swung in ahead of him and landed fine
Behind 9W-7679.

- Morris Bishop

Morris Bishop: ‘Ambition’ from The Best of Bishop; Light Verse from The New Yorker and Elsewhere (Cornell). © 1950, 1978 Alison Kingsbury Bishop. Originally in The New Yorker. Used by permission.