Rise Up Review
Advice for My Nephew on Getting his Driver’s Permit
Set your hands at 10 and 2
Grandpa once said to me, your mother,
your cousins, and he’ll say to you.
He’ll tell you to buckle up, adjust your
seat, your mirrors, and the one-second rule
for estimating the distance between
you and the car in front of you.
Then round and round you’ll cruise an empty
parking lot with Grandpa braced
between the dash and seat, smiling.
But he is a white man and may neglect to add:
Keep your palms flat against the wheel
when the police stop you for a broken light,
and never reach for your wallet.
—Wendy Scher
@riseupreview 2017
Wendy Mannis Scher, a graduate of the Low Residency MFA program for Creative Writing/Poetry at the University of Alaska/Anchorage, lives with her family in the foothills west of Boulder, Colorado. Her poems most recently have been published in Lunch Ticket, Sugar Mule, and Shout it Out! Poems Against Domestic Violence. In addition to writing, she works as a drug information pharmacist at a poison and drug information call center.
