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.
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About Pedalling Poetry
Writer Ellen McAteer is founder of Tell It Slant poetry bookshop in Glasgow, General Manager at Poetry London magazine. She was a visiting lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art, and a mentee of the Clydebuilt Verse Apprenticeship Scheme, under Alexander Hutchison, and a singer with the band Stone Tape, as well as 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 