Totaled by Cora McCann Liderbach

~ ONE ART
Totaled A jolt—I check my rearview. A man with long grey hair jumps from his Ford, waves his arms, paces. Shouts My car is totaled—I have nothing! The grill of his Focus sits in its engine. The hood curls like a lip, headlights smashed in. I exit my Prius, rear bumper dangling, ask about insurance. Tossing I’m so sorry over his shoulder, he runs off, shedding jacket and fedora. I peer in his Ford: stuffed with black garbage bags. My world collapses, shrinks to the size of a compact car. I imagine hustling meals, showers, a bed. EMS arrives, rolls the wreck to the curb, checks my vision. All I see: a man roaming November streets in shirtsleeves.

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Cora McCann Liderbach lives by Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio. Her first poetry chapbook, Throughline, was published in 2024 (Finishing Line Press). Recent work appears in The Roads at Night Looked Like Our Futures, a 40 Over 40 Anthology; Quartet; Unbroken; Light Enters the Grove Anthology; and The RavensPerch. She was a 2022 Best of the Net nominee (Impostor).

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