Sunday, November 17, 2019

Escargot Cargo




I asked Jeeves,
“Why so slow today?”
“Well, sir,” he replied,
“It’s not the traffic, as you see.
The fuel injection line is sick
and try as I might,
I can’t whip this car
to gather speed.”

If I had wanted a machine
that rode at walking pace
I’d have bought a rickshaw
or an absurd micro,
not a Mercedes-Benz.

 “So,” I said to Jeeves,
 “An infection in the injection?
This car’s but two weeks on the road.”
“There are reports,” Jeeves replied, “that a tiny snail,
Xerolenta obvia by name, sought asylum,

from Germany, stowed its
hermaphroditic family in a shipment
of Mercedes-Benz, then found its way –
or lost its way more likely –
into our fuel injection system.”

I pondered on
a nautical analogy. 
Deep divers caught with
nitrogen in their blood,
surfacing too fast,
un-dissolve it:
then bubbles of gas
obstruct and slow them down.

Perhaps the snail, I thought,
might resemble a bubble
in the fuel line –
an automotive embolus –
a case of Mercedes bends?

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