RELICS

Before I knew words for it

I loved what was obsolete

crumpled at the foot of a closet

lost in the street

left out in the rain

in its wet story

from another age

in a language that was lost

like the holes in socks

I loved the rust with its steering wheel

in midair above the forbidden

chassis and the mouths of tunnels

the eyes of dust

no floor with its pedals

that I was never to touch

because all of it was

dangerous

and the touch of it

would never come off

though I could tell that no one

really believed that

as it stood there behind

the garage that had floated to us

like an ark from the days of horses

and I stood at the corner and listened