Strike

 

Strike

 

I blame my hair.

Attraction to destruction, fire,

screams through his veins.

If he had said,

“When you’re pregnant I will chase

you down with my bike,

hit you, screech in your face

until the walls shrug

with the commonality of abuse,”

then I would have known

our only visitor would be

a man with a red clipboard

leaving, distressed

and a police car,

one, two, three of them

that I would wave goodbye to

before I enter the cold brick house.

If I had known,

well maybe I would have

shaved my head bald,

stayed in the shadows,

waiting for someone else

to rescue me.

Linda Sacco

Linda Sacco is a teacher and writer living in Melbourne, Australia.

Her qualifications include Bachelor of Arts (Professional Writing) from Victoria University and Master of Teaching (Primary) from The University of Melbourne.

Her poetry has been published in Ariel Chart, Bluepepper, Dead Snakes, Dual Coast Magazine, 50 Haikus, Haiku Journal, Haiku Pond, Inwood Indiana, Poetry Quarterly, Poetry Pacific, Tanka Journal, Three Line Poetry and Track + Signal Magazine. Her first full-length poetry collection is Waves.

In 2022, her poem River was nominated for The Pushcart Prize. In 2023 her poem Conversations with Trees was nominated for a Best of the Net award.

She is the author of the Which Is Your Perfect Pet? ebook series with titles on Dog Breeds, Designer Dogs, Cat Breeds and Birds. A forthcoming title in the series, Rabbits and Rodents is due for release in 2024.