This is a dark man, spark man
Angry like storms can.
Flicker his eyes size you up and look for a crack in you.
Irritable, nitty gritty, treading on eggshells –
Crack and get slapped, smack!
Open your mouth and he’s in
Making whirlpool your words
Wounding sharp, sharp –
Do not try to protest:
Argue is his apple pie.
Back home like a phone just before it
Rings, that noise in the air just before it
Rings, the sound rattles your drums
Your skin hums:
This is like the calm before what comes
Hush now, tippy-toe –
Can’t help but touch the switch,
Though I should know.
About Pedalling Poetry
Writer Ellen McAteer is founder of Tell It Slant poetry bookshop in Glasgow, and Publishing Manager for the Poetry Translation Centre. She was General Manager at Poetry London magazine, a visiting lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art, and a mentee of the Clydebuilt Verse Apprenticeship Scheme, under Alexander Hutchison, as well as a singer with the band Stone Tape and a solo singer who won a BBC Radio competition with her song Blue Valentine. She was Director of the Poetry Trust, which ran the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, a director of the Scottish Writers’ Centre, a visiting lecturer at Oxford University's MSt in creative writing, and a member of the core group of performers at the Hammer and Tongue spoken word collective in Oxford. She is a qualified Librarian.
Ellen McAteer 