DANGEROUS DRIVING
………. I clocked you on the verge
as I dawdled in the slow lane—
…. knew I shouldn’t stop
but slowed and rolled my window down—
……………………. you pulled out sharp
………. your bumper glancing mine.
…. Now my heart’s a demented engine:
It brakes at green lights ….. speeds up at red
…. drives through No Entry signs, takes roundabouts
anti-clockwise ….. jams the pedal
………. until rubber burns. … And when we collide
… let’s do it on the central reservation
………. ripping through the guardrail, let my chassis
wrap round yours—make the pain
……………………. so perfect I can’t feel it anymore.
………. And when they … pull me from the wreckage
let me be unrecognisable,
………. limp with pleasure …. my chest dripping
…………………. like rubies—
………. sparkling, impossible to stanch.
Author’s Bio
SHARON BLACK is originally from Glasgow but now lives in the Cévennes mountains of southern France. She has been published widely and in 2013 won the Ilkley Literature Festival Poetry Competition and was runner-up in the Troubadour Poetry Prize. Her collection, To Know Bedrock, was published by Pindrop Press. www.sharonblack.co.uk