TWILIGHT'S SEDUCTION OF "KING RAT"

The ocean's receded since those great days
and the light house ain't lit that much
now a computer drive around the storm
and the faithful and a leader
with a bit of a limp, but no crutch.

Now just an interstate show of trophies and cars
Vs.
a white house headquarters of sellers and buyers
a longtime friction that wears and scars,
corporate jaws emerge from broken pliers.

But you did what you did: 'King Rat' to go
Hall of Fame vermin-infested and now diecast,
"Oscars," fans, the reign, and the woe
raced on to stardom that's fast yet lasts.

And so if you've given it some thought
and the fight grows old, but laurels are fair
shut the twilight door of that swamp motel
swap pop machine years for a pool chair.

A man of your experience should be tired
and we'll be around, so cheers'll still ring
for the lanes that lit up
from those prayers on fire,
from black magic afoot
traced to Florida, wired
by a dangerous old rat
by an all-conquering rat
who would
be king.

- Chris Martin

photo by Jeff Burk

(Hopefully this isn't too obscure. Poetry is always awash in symbolism and my feeble attempt here is, too. The "ocean" in stanza one is the sport, the Top Fuel class, the "light house," the beacon for the class is Don Garlits. Computers have made tuning much easier than in days of old and they allow modern racers to get by all the potentially hit and miss stuff of the past, racers of the past, the storms of the past.

The interstate block castle is the Garlits museum that not only houses trophies and cars, but the views of the owner, which exist in sharp distinction to the view of the modern hot rod association. "Broken pliers", the blood and sweat of the pioneers, "broken" as in no money, 'pliers' of the Top Fuel trade, exist in sharp contrast to what they've unwittingly produced, a sport dominated by corporate involvement.

A few stanzas down you have the old drag racing lifestyle of the Don Garlitses of the past. Muggy, country, horse-shoe-shaped highway motels, homes to so many. Now Garlits is in a position in his life to trade that lifestyle in (admittedly because he's Don Garlits, he probably hasn't staid in many flea bags lately, but he used to.) "Twilight door" means putting an end to that on the road living, if he does it at all, it's an act in the twilight of his career. The new lifestyle is tongue in cheek, "cool pool" take a load off enjoy the comforts of a successful career.

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