Big Black Oil Cap

Hello dear readers, here is another repost of an older poem, this one is from December 2017



Big Black Oil Cap

Not the town’s greatest car lover

An automobile, an object like any other

Petrol guzzlers

Noisy muzzlers

Inanimate metal and plastic, costing plenty of dough

Pity, they do need some care though

Spoilt and fed like a hungry teenager

Cooling water in the radiator

Screw the shiny brass cap back on

Fresh air in the tyres

Screw the little rubber caps back on

Dear-as-poison petrol in the tank

Screw the safety fuel cap back on

Lubricating oil in the engine-head

This is where absent-mindedness overtook instead

Forgot to screw the Big Black Oil Cap back on

Drove to the Big City the next day

Not realizing I’d gone badly awry

Travelled home in a steamy-hot car

Back onto the driveway tar

Oil dripping over the front bumper-bar

Opened the bonnet. Aaaahhh!

The engine is like a whale’s spout

Spurting boiling, slimy oil all about

And there’s that Big Black Oil Cap

Alone on the garage bench

Like a magician’s gleaming black hat

Ivor Steven (c) March 2022