Inauguration rally

At the last peace rally I attended the night of the inauguration, a man with a gentle face and a ponytail came up to me and asked if he could recite a speech he had written. "Sure," I said. The recitation listed statistics about the impact of oil and automobiles, facts I already knew. "Do you like my car?" I asked him and swept my hand Vanna style behind me where my little car was parked at the curb. His delight broke his solemn decorum. "You have a Sparrow," he said, "I love Sparrows." I showed him the banner I had painted that afternoon to drape over the body. "No blood for oil. Plug into clean energy." For a dollar he sold me a tiny bumper sticker that said, "Mend your fuelish ways." He was taking pictures. I had many conversations that evening about the car.


Excerpted from The Work of Earthworms