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The Drags

THE DRAGS
D’you remember? d’you remember the drags?
It was great d’you remember E.J. Potter?
The Michigan Madman that bike oh man that bike
you think yours is big ha!
That bike, that bike had a 312 cubic inch
fuel injected v8 corvette donk ha!
When That mother did the quarter
oh man did he do the quarter!
That wheel never stopped spinning,
man they had to hold up the races for ten minutes
for the fuckin smoke to clear,
wow, not the fastest mind
no not the quickest
but the biggest
and the meanest
man oh you should have seen this guy EJ Potter
he looked like a fuckin librarian man
fair dinkum pale and scrawny and wire rimmed
specs this little weed wrestling
half a ton of twisting snorting monster
down the strip it was something to see yeah
and the jet car wow oh yeah the jet car
like the guy said before the run
that this was like one reaally slick machine
that it was so quiet if you shut your eyes
or even blinked you’ld miss the run
and there it was this biro with wheels
sitting there turning over
you could tell by the smoke
just so quiet you couldn’t hear nothing
and there’s the christmas tree down go the lights
and on the go oh man this shriek went out
it just cut ya in half at the fuckin guts
oh man they were just falling back from the fence
I mean ya heard it in ya guts not ya ears
and then the time came down
and that thing had done the first quarter mile
under six seconds in Australian history
5.97 seconds man
276 miles an hour through the traps
but that baby flew!
whhoooo
dya ever see the standers
man these guys would like you know
chuck a wheely like the front wheels just lifted off
and stayed up like all the way through the traps
oh nooo but the fuellers ooh the fuellers
AA fuel dragsters they were the kings
they were the gods
oh baby those long thin monsters
running 98 per cent nitro
through 450 cubic inch bored out
supercharged v-8s to 8 straight through pipes ooh
but that howl that brat it grabbed ya
like music never will
it picked ya up at the entrails
and shook ya round like a rag doll
it rattled ya bones like a bikers mole
and the burn out dya ever see a burn out?
like they’ld put this shit on the strip man and spin the wheels in it and it’ld light up
and flames all about and the flames from the pipes
they flew on wings man
fiery wings like burning burning it melted the tyres
see for better traction?
you know those fuckers thundered man
it was Thors revenge
it was Supermen farting,
it was a fuckin gas!

About This Poem

About the Author

Region, Country: Sydney, Australia, AUS

Favorite Poets: The Romantics, The Mersey Sound, The Beats and, of course, The Bard

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Comments

weirdelf

weirdelf

18 years 11 months ago

thanks you didn't thnk it was about cross dressing

It was about my passion for drag racing when I was 15. I Iike it because it reflected my passion when i was that age. I have not quite got over it. But I think most men like speed and explosions. I certainly do. I am not ashamed of speed, explosions and loving women. Forgive my punctuation and spelling. A quite a few Scotchs tonight, cheers Jess
andrew

andrew

18 years 11 months ago

Outloud

I started reading that, and I realized, fuckin realized [to use your words], that it just had to be read out-in-the-loud. That was a poem to be performed. If you write like that when you drink, keep drinking.
H

HDGoodman

18 years 10 months ago

that's it

i don;t know if you recall my reaction when you read this out. i was roaring! that is so much of my adolescent life right there, perfectly captured in a great cracking, burnt rubber smelling, metaphor.
I

IKnowNoBox

18 years 8 months ago

I BROKE MY PENCIL BETWEEN MY FINGERS

Only Once,in all my life have I heard that indepth insight, and Whether you believe me our not it was an Austrailian that pulled it off,I recall his account of a ride through the outback in a road train.The details and exclamations of hanging out the window to pee alone filled a 10 minute window,people where fussing in their bar stoles, a few drinks where spilled ,and when some dumb ass fool tried to interupt, it was the most silent 86 I ever saw, you really took me back.When I said "I broke my pencil I mean" "I broke my Fucking pencil!"Now I have the privialage of reading such a thing. Whould A Bobs Yer Uncle Be proper form? Daddler
O

orgami

16 years 2 months ago

I just noticed the last line

and was watching Kerouks freinds talking about him they included film footage and created a great documentary/film poet/poetry in the end they are combined and we combine here in Neo sometimes brilliantly aflame and dull and thick but always jostling ideas inflections of thought this is a superb poem as I like your other great poem about the mining experience in my days travelling to this point of old decreptism aches and bad judgement still I did come across many wild things and unlike the true zoo the meaning of animal is animal mammal hot blooded oh to be cold blooded and require feeding only monthly and yet yet there is great joy in the emotions and feelings that course through the occasional greeting of the dawn the compatriots hand upon the shoulder upon greeting in the traces of the days daily missions the ordinary foraging for enriched laundry detergent in small colourful bottles and Valentino card with chocolate lind bunny that I cannot but just did afford (now to get his hollow preciousness home without squashing in the large blue packsak I have on my back or side now..humping the boonies with cans and stuff and yet I am not polluting I am getting air and exercise and taking moments to see the day feel the cold hear the thunder and birds singing in their exhultations of being...) the day by day passing through its narrows like grains in the glass of time blah blah and then some