A sign in the crowd of NASCAR fans
at the Michigan Speedway
celebrates
one driver’s motto, “All
We Do Is Win!”  Except,
according to the stats,
he doesn’t.  He wins sometimes,
crashes sometimes, makes
damn fool mistakes and gets pissy
sometimes.  But he’s out there every week
and I guess that counts for a win
in that broad all-American sense
that being bold in the attempt
is enough.  Still it feels
like a lie — unlike the sign
next to it, which bears
a different driver’s number
and the motto, “Go Beer!”

I turn from the TV
and switch on the computer.
Some Facebook updates run like this:
“It’s a wonderful day —
God has given me this, and I will do
great things today in God.”
Unless they’re like this:
“My car won’t start, someone
killed my cat, and now that job’s
out of reach, FML.”  How
All-American is that?  To believe
that God is either pushing you
to greatness or sitting on your head,
and no other possibilities exist?

It seems
like to be All-American these days
is to say
“All I Do Is Win,” until there’s no win
and then it’s to say
“Fuck My Life.”  It’s either triumph or drink,
succeed or fail, with God’s love
anything is possible, or nothing at all
is ever possible, and there’s always beer
to depend on for some. That middle ground
where you just get up in the morning
to read the paper and shake your head
vaguely at stories while sipping
discount coffee is nowhere, man;
it’s either vainglory
or devastation within,
arrogance or failure, potency or sterility…

Let me offer a new manifesto:

I’ll henceforth be happy to place twenty-second,
bring home a scraped ride
with a bunch of stripes
on the passenger side.  I’ll be happy
if there’s a God who doesn’t care
if a Chevy or a Toyota is out front,
and if my own Honda doesn’t start
in the morning I won’t blame
a disastrous fate for that
as I break out the wrenches
and spend the day under the hood,
shaking my head, saying, “I don’t know
what’s wrong with it…”  I’ll be OK
with middling self-esteem.  I’ll be OK
holding up a sign that says,

“All We Do Is Win…Or Not.  It Depends
On The Track, The Weather, The Tires,
How Much The Other Guy Wants It,
How Good Or How Bad We Are Today,
Who Wrecks Ahead Of Us And Collects Us
In The Pile-Up That Follows…”

Yeah, that’ll be a BIG sign.
I’ll have to make it shorter.

Maybe,

“All We Do Is Show Up.”