The King of Calm
My father thought he was easy-going,
which he was, if everything went his way –
but things –
events, timings, steaks, Chinese Spare Ribs,
other bloody-minded people, idiot politicians,
bad arguments, apostrophe mistakes, late cats,
lost keys, racehorses that fell over, incorrect
crossword clues, hapless home-cooked-too-hot-curry
disasters, often meant - things - did not.
I don’t know if he just forgot – in the moment -
all those times, and truly believed he was breezy,
unbothered by anxiety, never on edge - the king
of calm - but my unfettered recollection is of a wild
eyed maniac in the passenger seat of Ma’s Volvo
flicking V signs at startled motorists heading south.
Sarah Wallis is a writer living on the East Coast of Scotland, UK. Her latest chapbook, Poet Seabird Island, is now available from Boats Against the Current. 2023 included poem art at Osmosis, podcasting with Eat the Storms and a winning story at The Welkin. Recent work is at Propel, in both digital and audio versions, and appeared on The Storms podcast for the second time in May this year.
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