POEM - The Peugeot Diaries

When we built our home in Tucson

The whole project was a family affair

Uncle Kim came down to design it

A two story structure

Based on the Roman Cross style

Uncle Ron then took over as contractor

I spent hours of my free time

Cleaning up construction clutter

By summer I was ready for a break

We were in the finishing stages

Not everyone could get away

So my sister and I were sent

To be representatives for the Masons

At the Steadman family reunion

This year it was Flaming Gorge

At the cabin great grandpa had built

Uncle Kim had started driving the Peugeot

That grandpa had bought on a whim

Actually a better fit for my uncle

He spoke French like a native

I think the car knew it too

We drove off feeling a little older

Trusted to run off by ourselves

Have a little more freedom

Than the rest of our cousins

The first leg landed us in Flagstaff

To dine at Little America

Sitting in the corner booth

I tried to get the mustard out of the bottle

Forgot to tighten the lid

Cassie ended up covered in yellow

Kim started to question volunteering

Cleaned up and fed we headed north

Made it to the Utah border

Crashed at the first motel we could find

The morning light revealed too much

The melted ice from the night before

Left a nasty gray film in the ice bucket

We survived, but just barely

The rest of the trip was less eventful

We made our way through tons of music

Listened to Suzanne Vega a few times

Got to Flaming Gorge

Arrived in the middle of the night

Stunned by the brightness of the Milky Way

So thick you could barely find a space

That didn’t have a star flickering away

Enjoyed the tubing and the cousins

Grandparents, aunts and uncles

Games around the table

Talking away the night

And everything else a family reunion is

Went a different way home to avoid the motel

Rode shotgun nearly the whole way

Made it almost all the way back to Tucson

Before I argued once too often

Said something mean

Got banished to the back seat

Kim might not have known it

But that was a record for us

Normally we didn’t make it out of town

Before Cassie and I got yelled at