Tiny Kazoo - Justine McCloskey

My car is a sanctuary

It careens me across space and time

I arrive places with haste

The brakes firm and easy

It suspends me, skipping over potholes and mangled carcasses like a smooth stone skips over crystal waters

The world rushes by as I stare straight down the barrel of the open road.

The aux cable broke again,

So my only soundtrack is the tiny kazoo that plays under the hood.

I forget about it sometimes, when the wind is boisterous, or the sirens chime

But in dark, silent nights, I can hear it play

Whizzing a tune, out of tune, rearing as I accelerate, a denouement as I lift my toes off the gas.

At first, I was concerned. 

How can this be? Where? Why?

My car had always been discreet,

Like a panther in the night.

I owned the stealthy nature of this nimble machine.

I could be anywhere without a fuss.

And one day, without warning or cause, the kazoo began to play

With a whimsy reserved for 6-year-old savants and springy ballerinas.

It wailed and waned

Following the motion of the vehicle as it traversed spans of field and forest

I exercised caution and took to the side roads in order to avoid unnecessary strain and speed

And yet the music persisted

Sometimes loud and booming on days of bravado and internal glory

And other times quiet and demure, serenading me in days of strained existence.

(I swear it once played the theme to the x-files) 

Anyway 

My mechanic never hears it, though I brought the car it in twice to check.

This is a soundtrack just for me.

Today it whizzed as I drove through the dark

On winding roads and into eternity

I wait for it.

I test its limits and range respectfully.

I don’t seek to locate the source of the kazoo 

In case it disappears into the workings of the car like Avalon into the mist

Maybe it’s shy

And I love it

This tiny kazoo.

https://youtu.be/7VI-bm8---U?si=NhhIu5YnuDmf6Qzf

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Justine McCloskey is a filmmaker, writer, photographer, programmer, and analogue artist. She graduated with honours from Toronto Metropolitan University's BFA Film Studies program in 2013, specializing in directing and production design. In 2012, she won the prestigious Norman Jewison Award for Innovation in Filmmaking. Justine went on to attend the University of Toronto, where she received her MA in Art History while working as a TA with both UofT and OCADu. She is attending U of Guelph for yet another MA in Integrated Humanities, focusing her thesis on feasts and banquets in Italian Renaissance art and literature.

She is the founder of the Hard Drive Project screening series, and Artistic Director of the Guelph Film Festival. A recipient of OAC and CCA grants among others, her writing, films, and photography have been published and screened internationally. 

@justine_olivia