Dumb Mistake

Sometimes you can just add a can
and that’ll seal the leak
sometimes you can weasel off the cap
even when it’s hot

but not this time
because suddenly I’m running
from an erupting radiator
and all those years
of cooling system caution
don’t mean nothing now

boiling coolant
is blasting my back
and wherever I run
the geyser gets me
with burning green
antifreeze

I rip off my shirt
my skin is peeling
raw off my neck
my shoulders
my arms

“Hey!” some bum tells me
“I saw that coming two blocks away!
You know better than that, man!
You’re a mechanic and shit, man!”

“Yeah, yeah,” I tell him
and finish the job
pouring the can
of Stop-Leak in

*

After the emergency room
a mile of gauze
and six hundred dollars
of Silverdine cream
I take my second-degree
burned back home

and for the next three days
immobile in bed
the sweet smell of coolant
steams from me
oozing yellow pus

I’m so burnt
I can’t wear a shirt
and can’t go to school
and can’t go to work

all I can do
is lie there and listen
to the voice of my father
sounding in my head:

So, son
     did you learn anything?