Best Horsepower Poems
Rednecks make parts in the basement
They've mastered piston emplacement
They'll bore out a block
To be bigger than stock
Displacement has no replacement
Author's note. A really great guy in the office has a classic '67 Firebird
that will go really fast and has fun taking it to car shows in the area.
This is part of American culture. Yahoooo!
Climb inside and buckle in
Anxiously twisting the key
As a mechanical symphony roars to life
Setting nine hundred horses free
The machine becomes an extension
Of my own flesh and bone
My heart beats in choppy rhythm
While eight cylinders scream in tone
Launch sequence initiated
The green bulb’s affirmative glare
Release one button as I depress another
The front tires suspend in mid air
The mechanical cavalry stampedes
While the pipes cry out their siren song
Defiantly embedding rubber into asphalt
Parallel stripes running dark and long
Every gear change seemingly effortless
Acceleration that flattens your chest
Control of the beast seems impossible
While every sense is put to the test
Heads swivel and jaws drop open
The earth quakes as I roll past
Vanishing into the darkness
Redefining the meaning of “fast”
For I have stared fear in the face
While others stood back and leered
I stomped my right foot in defiance
And clicked down to a lower gear
This - the Divine Unity
Of Man and his Machine
In water we may be baptised
But in horsepower we are redeemed
Toot-a-looot!..Honky-honk!..Beep-a-leep!
Wash my metal skin and keep me clean,
The car is my body..the ideal shape to be in,
Look after me , I'm your mean machine.
The engine is my heart,hoses and pipes
Are the veins and arteries to my heart.
The wheels are my feet,headlights my eyes.
I can feel,see and feed on water and gas.
Sometimes early in the mornings ,
It may be too cold for me to jump start.
I purr when I'm happy,growl when I'm angry
Glide ,pounce and creep along in traffic jams.
I am the car,your chariot always by your side.
Horsepower,I am your horse from Medieval days.
Loyal and devoted I have carried you like a
Baby on my back , near or far.
Like an aeroplane, we fly together,forever.
Come ,feel safe and warm inside me while
outside it is raining.
I shall protect you ,while the wind is howling...
And always be by your side.
My little pearl,I'll be your wheels of liberation,
I give you Independence to come and go,
And freedom for solitude and peace of mind.
I am your car, you are inside me.
Toot-a-looot! Pay attention, I'm coming through!
Horsepower
David J Walker
It occurs to me that while
Horses can run
Could they actually pull a
Rocketship past the moon
Headed to the sun?
Apollo 11, for instance,
And just for fun
Is said to have had
32 million horsepower
As if each one
Was Harnessed with leather straps
And brightly polished brass bells
And as the crowd swells
off they run
At the crack of a whip
32 million horses all at once
Leap upward up-ward with a
6 Million tun
payload
Kicking up dust
All those horses needing to
Generate 7.5 million pounds
of thrust
at liftoff, that is
Off towards the sun
Hooves pounding
Harness bells ringing and
Commander Neil Armstrong
On top cracking the whip
Singing, suns of the pioneer's songs
Headed to the moon on his
32 million Horse-drawn rocket ship.
Can you hear the voices of
Those Space Cowboys stepping lightly
As their horses
Fertilize the surface of the moon?
“Ahhhh ..Houston… We Have a problem here”
“Who is gonna clean this up?”
Have you ever gone out to the garage, slid behind the wheel of that Bowtie, twisted the key and lit off that big Rat …
Rolled out to the middle of the culdesac, two clicks down into low, left foot over the brake while you slowly depress with the right ...
And just as the squeal of the tires begins to stir the neighbors, you hammer the accelerator until it starts to dimple the sheet metal in the floor beneath ...
You see Bill come running out his front door just as you lose sight of his house in the rearview thru the billowing clouds of white smoke now forming ...
Mothers rush to scoop up their children and pull them to safety as you slowly release your left foot and begin to have to steer now to keep her straight ...
Wheel to the left, then to the right, as you start to pick up forward momentum, while watching the tach bounce around the redline and then slowly start to fade downward ...
The smoke entering the car's interior starts to burn your eyes as you squint and struggle to keep your focus on the now hazy landscape ...
Right hand ratchets up once into second as the rear tires continue to scream in protest and things start to speed by with just a little more urgency than moments before ...
Finally she starts to hook and the G's start to press against your chest as you hesitate, take in a small breathe, and then click up one more gear ...
The steering wheel feels light in your hands as you tighten your grip and, even though the smoke has vacated the interior, you still struggle to see clearly due to your pupils being flattened by the blinding rate of acceleration ...
Finally, unwillingly, you lift, as better judgement overcomes raw desire ...
Three blocks later the tires have cooled and the smoke has dissipated, but your heart rate is still 30 beats faster than normal ...
And as you sit at the red light, you take a deep breath to try to regain some composure and glance over to the little old lady in the Caprice next to you ...
And you say to yourself ...
“You think she wants to run?"