Screenshot from “2011 Subaru Outlack AWD (Walkthrough).”
My mother appreciated to name the colour, half-endearingly, “baby-shit brown.” I’m informed Subaru manufactured autos in that individual coloration for just one 12 months, 2011. The most important Outback mannequin—removed from cute. I wouldn’t say that I lived out of it, although that’s not too far off. I used to be in faculty on the time, and my residing scenario consisted of sleeping on a three-season porch in Colorado Springs. I purchased the automotive in Boston, the summer time earlier than my junior 12 months, and threw a futon mattress within the again. By the point I bought to my porch, I stored as many garments in my room as I did at the back of the automotive. Wherever I slept, the temperature was at all times the identical inside as out, and most mornings I used to be drowning in high-altitude sunshine.
It was a grimy automotive. If I used to be with buddies and we stepped out of a bar and noticed a dumpster within the parking zone, somebody would say, “Look, it’s the passenger seat of Ok’s automotive.” A number of laughs. As soon as, driving from Colorado Springs to Moab, Utah, half the rear bumper launched itself from the body. I may see it waving by the again windshield like a shit-brown flag in opposition to the canyons and pink mud. I stored promising to plastic-weld the bumper again collectively, however a Frankenstein-like sew job with black tape did the job properly sufficient. As they are saying: duct tape will repair something however a damaged coronary heart. My buddies took to calling the automotive “Soiled Gerty,” with a aptitude for rhyme. Why Gertrude? Who is aware of.
The start of the top for Gerty got here at excessive pace. It’s not as scary as that may sound. Visiting residence after commencement, close to Boston, I used to be doing eighty on Route 2 when the automotive stalled. I pulled over to the aspect of the highway and bought it began once more. On a aspect road, after I got here to a whole cease, the engine stalled once more. It was an computerized. By the point I bought it to a storage, I used to be mainly holding a hand, twist-ready, on the important thing within the ignition. Blown transmission, not price changing, contemplating the situation of the automotive. After three years, near 100 thousand miles, and nights spent in a minimum of half of the decrease 48 (MA, VT, ME, NH, RI, NY, PA, MD, VA, OH, IL, IN, IA, ID, MI, MN, MO, KS, NE, CO, UT, AZ, NM, CA, OR, WA) and 5 Canadian provinces (NB, NS, ON, PE, QC), I donated Gerty to charity.
As a result of it was a restricted model-color run, I don’t see too many Gertys out on the roads. I noticed one this morning. In my chest, I felt that acquainted flip, my foot urgent the pedal to the ground, climbing one thing steep, trying over at a pal, Max or Rowan, Fiona or Hollis, with a sea of cans and occasional mugs at their toes.
Kelan Nee is a poet and carpenter from Massachusetts. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The Adroit Journal, 32 Poems, The Yale Overview, and elsewhere. His debut assortment, Felling, is forthcoming from the College of North Texas Press in 2024. He lives in Houston.
