Jace Rowe: "Redneck Engineering"
Rowe's "Redneck Engineering" is a poetic ode to resourcefulness and resilience in rural America.
Redneck Engineering is an exploration of how I’ve seen people from my rural hometown solve their problems without many resources at hand.
Poverty is alive and well in Prunedale (known colloquially as “Prunetucky”) which means if something breaks, you have to redneck engineer your way out of it with what’s at hand.
Packing tape is cheaper than a new taillight cover, Bud Light is cheaper than therapy, and eyeliner is cheaper than admitting so
mething is really wrong at home.
Here, you use what you have to get by.
Redneck Engineering
By Jace Rowe
Redneck engineering
is hitching a fifth wheel to an RV
to a piece of shit F-150.
Piggy backing brake wires,
packing-tape-patched tail-lights.
zip-tying for your life.
No need for therapy.
Ain’t a hurt bad enough Bud can’t fix,
except for alcoholism maybe.
But that’s what God made 30 racks for.
Chicken wire to keep the chickens in,
the foxes out,
to put over the hole in the wall
your dad made with his fist.
The last bit of hardened spackle over it.
No point in painting.
Sadie bastes her face with concealer,
tells us the bruise is eye shadow.
That’s redneck engineering, too, you know.
Jace Rowe is a playwright turned poet from Steinbeck country. Her work has been featured in The Porter Gulch Review and she is the cohost of the Inter|Act spoken word open mic night in Santa Cruz, CA.
Interesting social commentary poem. Almost like the lyrics to a protest or folk song. I have noticed several have cropped up lately. Oliver Anthony's poetic lyrics seem to fit in that model
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro