Tracks That Measure Eight

I'm still not even sure
what an eight track is, or
is it 8 track, or 8 trax, no
the X seems too modern
for a sound recording technology
invented and popularized
over a decade before my time, or maybe
there's a hyphen, 8-tracks, like so.
I've seen this contraption, I think
it looks like a big fat plastic piece of bread
or a big fat plastic
iPod (just kidding!)
or maybe it's like a fatter version of
a Nintendo cartridge, and
I wonder if 8-trak owners had
to blow in the end just to get it to play music
when worbly lines of static appeared
in the speakers. And like most tapey things
I think it makes sounds like
k a c h u n k   k a c h u n k
when you push it into
the dashboard? the radio?
the eight-Trak player?
I bet my mom would tell me
I've even heard an aterack
probably in the womb, I imagine
that's why I love Pink Floyd
so much. Freewheeling, interlocking
tape-tens i  o   n    i     n       g,
quadrophonic, endless loops
of magnetic millimeters, oh
how the mind reels!


A poetry prompt from Poetic Asides