Just in Case

My mother explained it
like this one day
when I asked her the obvious question.

“When I was a girl
in the early days
of automobiles
like the Ford Model T
you needed a crank 
to get the motor going.

It fit in a slot
just under the grille
and you yanked it and cranked it
with all your might
till you finally heard
the churlish coughs
puffs and harrumphs
of the damn motor returning to life.

Then they came out 
with the Ford Model A
which started right up
when you pushed a button:
a great innovation,
the self-starting car.
Everybody loved it,
they sold like hotcakes.

But believe it or not
these modern self-starters
came fully equipped
with what? guess what? 
A crank! And why?
Why that grim, obsolete,
unlamentented tool
in this spanking new 
self-starting Ford Model A?

Just in case,
though extremely unlikely,
that wonderful button
stopped working.
Prudently, scrupulously
just, in, case.

And that,” she concluded
with a kiss on my cheek,
“is why men have nipples. Just in case.”