I'm looking for a poem (1 Viewer)

[simismon]

Sorry,
I've been trying to find one of his poems for several days.
I didn't read it in original but in translation, but I remember that it had to do something with the horse race and watching young people driving beside him in a car. And I remember that it ended with him driving his car into the sea and he mentioned shark and starfish. I know it sounds stupid, but I can't get it out of my head for several days.
Thank you,
Simon

 

[hank solo]

Not exactly as you describe it, but sounds like 'the race' which was collected in 'Burning in Water Drowning in Flame'. Describes racing towards the ocean against a car full of young people after leaving a boxing match.

...and your foot is to the floor
and you catch the young ones,
you pass the young ones
and holding the wheel like all love gone
you race to the beach
with them
brandishing your cigar and your steel,
laughing,
you will take them to the ocean...

 

[mjp]

Maybe the translator changed cigar and steel to shark and starfish. ;)

Or maybe Martin did the translation and made some of his subtle "improvements."

 

[hank solo]

Here you go:

the race

it is like this
when you slip down,
done like a wound-up victrola
(you remember those?)
and you go downtown
and watch the boys punch
but the big blondes sit with
someone else
and you've aged like a punk in a movie:
cigar in skull, fat gut,
but only no money,
no wiseness of way, no worldliness,
but as usual
most of the fights are bad,
and afterwards
back in the parking lot
you sit and watch them go,
light the last cigar,
and then start the old car,
old car, not so young man
going down the street
stopped by a red light
as if time were no problem,
and they come up to you:
a car full of young,
laughing,
and you watch them go
until
somebody behind you honks
and you are shaken back
into what is left
of your life.
pitiful, self-pity,
and your foot is to the floor
and you catch the young ones,
you pass the young ones
and holding the wheel like all love gone
you race to the beach
with them
brandishing your cigar and your steel,
laughing,
you will take them to the ocean
to the last mermaid,
seaweed and shark, merry whale,
end of flesh and hour and horror,
and finally they stop
and you go on
toward your ocean,
the cigar biting your lips
the way love used to.