Margaret Wagner

THE MAN NAMED BLUE

He kept me waiting and waiting.
Then grizzled up from nowhere at midnight
in a yellow rig with three scarlet A’s and a shiny black trailer.
This was my second tow truck driver—the first didn’t have the right equipment.

This one offered his hand…a firm bear paw
without visible claws. His was the kind of hand I wanted to shake
at least five more times. A hand
I’d let lead me blindfolded from a cave.

Despite his well-trimmed ginger beard,
he said his name was Blue.
Was that true blue, or you’ll make me blue…
boo-hoo, boo-hoo?

Blue was twelve hours in on a 24-hour shift,
his second in three days.
He harnessed my Subaru to his trailer
with a clang and a click, click, click.

He called his buddy, with a “wassssup,” to find me
the best Subaru mechanic in the nearest town.
As we drove off, he told me he watched the 49ers.
That was his football team. He paid good money to see them three times a year.

Blue delivered wood to estates
at the tops of mountains.
He liked their views.
He liked their tips.

Blue wanted a five-star rating on Yelp.
Not the puppy-dog yelp, not a coyote-call yelp,
but a stars-and-stripes exploding into the blue, blue yonder yelp.
He had a kind of hustle, but he did go above and beyond.

Then the wood-hauling tow truck driver named Blue
didn’t want to leave me in the mechanic’s empty parking lot.
Blue would have preferred to deposit me safely in the well-lit Burger King.
He told me to lock my car while waiting for the cab.

Blue printed his cell phone number
on the back of the tow card
as precisely as he must have stacked wood
behind the estates with the mountain views.

I tipped Blue a $20. A $20 with a handshake.
Blue downshifted back into the night.
He left me wondering.
Should I call to thank him?


Margaret Wagner is a writer, dancer, and artist who has written articles for World Screen and won three Travelers’ Tales Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing. She has studied with Ellen Bass, Marie Howe, Jericho Brown, and Julia Cameron, in addition to conscious dance pioneers 
Gabrielle Roth and Anna Halprin. Margaret is the founder of WRITE IN THE BEATTM, workshops that pair mindful movement with written poetry and visual art. She graduated with a B.A. in American Studies from Mount Holyoke College and attended the public sessions of Dominican University of California’s MFA creative writing courses and the AWP Conference 2019 (Portland, OR). She has served as visiting faculty at the Omega Institute, Kripalu, and Mount Holyoke College and is a certified Open Floor and 5Rhythms® dance teacher. Her work has been published in Cacti Fur, Evening Street Review, Front Porch Review, Perceptions MagazineI-70 Review, Raw Journal of the Arts and Steam Ticket.