On the path a dog barks at me.
Fear grows in my throat, my stomach twists.
I remember when a stray dog
broke into the yard during PE.
The children were in full revolt
refusing to listen to me.
I shouted in frustration.
The principal came outside
with a look of thunder on her face.
Later in the office she admonished
me like a little child.
I protested but got the deaf ear.
I wanted to scream out
that she was impossible.
The dog is still snarling.
I raise my hiking pole to belt it,
then realise he is also scared.
I run on quickly.
(An earlier version of this poem is in The Blue Nib issue 38 June 2019)
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Published by diarmuidfitzgerald
I am a poetry and prose writer. I write poetry, haiku, haibun, short stories as well as novels. Two haiku collections have been published by Alba Publishing (www.albapublising.com). Thames Way appeared in 2015 and A Thousand Sparks in 2018. Poems have appeared in The Stinging Fly, Cyphers, Boyne Berries, The Blue Nib, Flare, Impossible Archetype, and Crannóg. A poem of mine won 2nd place in the Ballyroan Library Competition 2018 and again in 2020. I won the Individual Artist Bursary from South Dublin County Council 2018. I won a scholarship to attend the Yeats Summer School 2018 in Sligo. Sixteen poems of mine were Highly Commended in the Blue Nib Chapbook Contests IV and V in 2019. A poem was shortlisted in the Bray Literary Festival in 2018. A poem was long-listed in Over The Edge Poetry Competition 2019. A haibun received an honourable mention in the Genjuan Haibun Competition 2021. The Singing Hollow, my first collection of poems, has been accepted for publication by Alba Publishing.
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