Second-hand trader
I learnt from poet and judge John Bray
our second-hand car trading laws
derive from Roman law for the selling
of cows and chariots. Nothing really changes
poets still tinker with the poem salvaging
what they can from towaways, dropping in
a transmission or exhaust manifold, forever
screwing and tweaking the carby. Anything
to make it hum again. Publishers sniff around
the engine bay. Have you got a cracked head?
I once sold the family sedan for $15. A sky-blue
Datsun 120Y with crumpled rear. I spent
the money that same evening on a book of poetry
by John West. I handed him the only $15 we had.