Upside Down Bowie

I was fourteen,
in the passenger seat
of my older sister's
blue Volkswagen Beetle
on a curvy, hilly,
and wet Route 19
just outside of
Mount Morris, Pennsylvania.

David Bowie was on

the eight-track tape deck

when my sister

took a curve too fast.

I saw the countryside

go bottom up

and realized that

the car was rolling over.

It stopped just short

of going over

an embankment.

The Beetle was totaled

with shattered glass

and a caved-in roof.

My sister was unharmed

and I escaped with

a small cut and a bump

on my head.

I still flash back, sometimes,

to the moment when I saw,

through a cracking windshield,

the world turn upside down

accompanied by the cadence

of David Bowie

singing "Rebel, Rebel." - Jeff Barnes