Susan Hawthorne #9 cars I have known

all my cars have names

it started with Myra Morris 1960 model

Hilda Holden came next

named after poet HD

stolen pranged and stolen again

irretrievable after the second theft

Renée Renault followed

the odd thing was that she came back

to visit after she'd left

parked outside my workplace

also untouched when all the cars

in the flats were attacked one night

a good luck car

Lucy Hilux was a different kind altogether

she carried us across the Nullarbor

along the Gibb River Road

all the way north to Karumba

on the Gulf of Carpentaria

we managed the wet season roads

sand boggings and roads so rough

it took hours to dive ten kilometers

her successor Queenie blew up on the first long drive

but has become our go to car for camping trips

she’s less adventurous but had her own share

of boggings and rescuings on flooded back roads

in between was Beryl Beetle named after another writer

bright yellow she drew attention simply by being