Mr. Jeffreys, I've Finally Caught You

Your father, in his forever
Wheelchair

Used to love to tell the story:
Stock drag-

Racing on the back roads of New
Jersey,

Hot-rod besotted, rebellious,
Helpless,

Roaring his mother's Cadillac
Ragtop,

Geared with a "hydromatic" shift,
Hand-tooled

Hand controls he'd machined himself,
He won

Often enough to be a ghost,
Legend

To the cops, the crippled wonder
Who dragged

Illegally and beat the boys
Who smoked

In pompadours and got their girls
Pregnant

And from time to time went to jail.
One night

On a wet, unlit straightaway
Blacktop

He saw the twirling candy lights
And lost

His license for a good long while.
"Mister

Jeffreys," growled the cop (he relished
This part),

"I finally caught you!" Then he laughed,
Your dad.

Well, well. All stories continue
To end

And end so they can continue.
Caught you.