Oil Change
Cars swarmed archways
of the station where
the receptionist instructed
I pull beside the Nissan,
which I translated to mean
the big silver slug parked
behind the tiny blue,
before handing me
a folded paper
with a number stamped
in the corner,
so I could take my seat
in the congested waiting area
alongside
a college kid working a Rubik’s Cube
and a pregnant woman,
in green tank-top
and Daisy Dukes, bending over
to tell her toddler
be patient and wait
while the rest of us pretended
to be engrossed with Olympians jogging laps
on the mounted big screen.
Early that morning,
each driver drafted a shrewd plot
to avoid the rush,
but fate
put us in this purgatory
to learn
from mechanics
whose diagnostics showed
we had more problems than a routine
oil change could fix
on a Friday.
Kevin J. McDaniel lives in Pulaski, Virginia, with his wife, two daughters, and two old chocolate Labs. To date, his work has appeared, or forthcoming, in Appalachian Heritage Writers Symposium, Artemis Journal, Broad River Review, Clinch Mountain Review, Common Ground Review, Floyd County Moonshine, Freshwater Literary Journal, GFT Press, Gravel, JuxtaProse, The Cape Rock, The Main Street Rag, and others. His recent chapbook, Family Talks, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2017.
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