I met a guy I used to know, who said:
“You take your ’57 Karnak, now,
The model that they called their Coop de Veal
That had the pointy rubber boobs for bumpers–
You take that car, owned by a nigger now
Likelier’n not, with half its chromium teeth
Knocked down its throat and aerial ripped off,
Side stitched with like bullets where the stripping’s gone
And rust like a fungus spreading on the fenders,

Well, what I mean, that fucking car still runs,
Even the moths in the upholstery are old
But it gets around, you see one on the street
Beat-up and proud, well, Jeezus what a country,
Where even the monuments keep on the move.”

Analysis, meaning and summary of Howard Nemerov's poem Ozymandias II

1 Comment

  1. John Lennard says:

    In the posted text the first two lines are missing. They should read:

    I met a guy I used to know, who said:
    “You take your ’57 Karnak, now,
    The model that they called …

    And so on, as in the posted text.

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