Jim Tilley: “Parallel Parking”
PARALLEL PARKING
Remember the time your parents let you take the car for a date
with your girlfriend? You went parking and began to discover
each other, such as anyone can at that age. The hardest part
of the test was being allowed one and only one attempt to kiss
properly, like parallel parking, neither too close nor too far.
Your Dad sat patiently as you tried and tried, hitting the curb,
crunching the rims, or ending up well away. Again and again,
until he realized there was a better way—an empty parking lot.
He put down several orange cones to simulate a curb. Drew
chalk lines on the pavement to guide how far you needed to
back in before you turned the wheel. After you passed the test,
you avoided every chance to parallel park, searched for head-in
or angle spaces instead, but picked only isolated spots for your
dates, no cones or chalked lines needed, even in the dark.
Jim Tilley has published three full-length collections of poetry and a novel with Red Hen Press. His short memoir, The Elegant Solution, was published as a Ploughshares Solo. His poem, “On the Art of Patience,” was selected by Billy Collins to win Sycamore Review’s Wabash Prize for Poetry. His next poetry collection, Ripples in the Fabric of the Universe: New & Selected Poems, will be published in 2024.