Good for another 50 years

Born 29 October 1940 and still running
strong on original components, a few
trifling rattles and squeaks, one or two
loose fittings but fundamentally sound
with a well engineered pre-war engine
and a solid chassis.

She’s racked up a swag of impressive
kilometres, not necessarily confined to
gravel tracks, or partially sealed back-country
roads liberally marked with cow-pats,
has tasted the autobahn and the freeway
and the salty sea air.

She’s sped through the atmosphere
at sub-sonic jet-speed, seen the sun rise
in the west and set in the east, bested gravity
and soared above a fractured land,
landed amid chaos and dissonance and
survived to tell the grandkids.

Okay fellers, that’s enough praise,
fill ‘er up with petrol, give ‘er an oil change,
check the radiator, pump up the tyres
and squirt a bit of grease on the axles.
I reckon she’s good
for another 50 years.
© I.D. Carswell

For 'little' sister Patsy who turns 66 on 29 Oct 2006