Red
(An Evening Walk In Winter)
Crawling along a B road
the interior light reveals Youth.
The driver looks
scared-happy-hopeful
and out of control
all at once
the train crossing barriers
are coming down,
flashing the same blood red
the girl in the passenger seat
is applying to her lips
with the help of the rear view mirror
she doesn't see the halo she'll be wearing soon.
The boy puts his foot down.
On the wrong pedal.
Marcus Slingsby was born in Yorkshire in 1973. During his 20's and early 30's he travelled the world: working construction in the Middle East, fruit picking in Australia and working as a carpenter in New Zealand. This enabled him to wander through Asia and South America for years.
Love brought him to The Netherlands, and then out to West Africa teaching HIV/AIDS prevention. Starting a family was his biggest adventure by far.
He would include Rohinton Mistry, Barbara Kingsolver, Jonathan Franzen and David Mitchell as writers he loves to read. Poetry-wise; Louis MacNeice, Don Paterson and Jonathan Edwards amaze.
His work has appeared in Shot Glass Journal, Amsterdam Quarterly, Jasper's Folly, The Poetry Lighthouse, Type and Flights. He lives in Friesland (province of The Netherlands) with his family.