Didn’t know it
was overheating

Didn’t see the smoke
Didn’t notice the sizzling
spittle spewing from under
the hood

Finally the smoke crept
from the hood and curled like
a finger of indictment of my
automotive ignorance

Pulling over off the Asheville
Highway I turn off the motor
thinking it might explode when
a truck pulls alongside

Two brown men look at me,
one young but not young and
one older

I see the smoke in your car
for a long time, the younger
one says

They get ouf of the truck
and tell me to pop the hood

Engine overheated

A friend of theirs lives
nearby so we drive there
to get water

The buckets have holes
and cracks, just like my
radiator

The younger one tells me
what i need to do–in both
Spanish and English

And i shake my head while
my paved over tongue sits
still, ashamed I look like I
should speak Spanish but
don’t

I tell them I’m Filipino (in Spanish)
but i don’t speak much of that

They pour water into
my radiator and do a patch
job so it doesn’t spew anymore
bad news in the language of cars

An overheating car
and I hardly noticed
never being mechanically
inclined

How many go from point
A to point B with overheating
hearts, insides?

It is known
as the silent killer

But these 2 brown men,
Mexicanos, popped my hood
did a diagnosis on me

and as they pulled
away, i said,
Gracias, hermanos

Their names:
Armando y Esteban

(c) 2023 Tony Robles