International Women’s March Fortnight: 13th March, ‘After Betty Davis’ by Angie Spoto

Today, we introduce the second of Angie’s fantastic poems, a homage to soul and funk singer Betty Davis.

 

I just wanna be your

Virginia Woolf novel

Skeleton key

Stained glass bottle

 

 

‘After Betty Davis’ by Angie Spoto

Originally published in SWAMP Magazine, http://www.swampwriting.com/

 

When I was his kitchen sink

I’d call the summer rain

 

When I was his apron string

I’d steep it in a tea

 

When I was his baseball seats

I’d send it down the drain

 

 

When I was his coffee pot

I’d keep it at a steam

 

When I was his Southside block

I’d cut nails neat

 

When I was his cotton sheets

I’d take my whiskey clean

 

 

When I was his steelworker

I’d build the bridges hot

 

When I was his Jupiter

I’d wash my hair, repeat

 

When I was his canine teeth

I’d call the shots, babe

 

 

I just wanna be your

 

Jackpot winner

Sunlight at sundown

Angostura bitters

Velcro shoes

 

Your

 

Single malt drink

Pacific Ocean current

Used brass ring

 

I just wanna be your

 

Virginia Woolf novel

Skeleton key

Stained glass bottle

 

When I call the shots, babe

you’d better follow

 

---

Angie Spoto is an American fiction writer and poet with a BA and Masters in Creative Writing. She has lived in Austria, the Netherlands, and now lives in Scotland, where she is completing a Doctorate in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. Her doctorate will culminate in a collection of fantastic and surreal stories that attempt to address the issues of domestic and sexual abuse. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous online and print anthologies, including SWAMP Magazine, Crooked Holster, and From Glasgow to Saturn. Visit her website at http://www.angiespoto.com.

 

International Women’s March Fortnight: 12th March, ‘Liquorice Woman’ by Angie Spoto

Today, Angie Spoto voices shares her experience of being a ‘liquorice woman’ trying – and failing – to read without disturbance in a pub. We really enjoyed Angie’s feisty and humorous tone, in this story of politely asking a stranger to go away…

 

I’m just here reading

and that doesn’t mean I want to talk

 

 

‘Liquorice Woman’ by Angie Spoto

Originally published in From Glasgow to Saturn: https://glasgowtosaturn.com/

 

I am a liquorice woman

a fennel creature

a saffron thing that doesn’t care

for your opinions or your thoughts on the matter

or your advice to me because I’m not asking

I’m just here reading

and that doesn’t mean I want to talk

it doesn’t mean I want you in my ear

or your fingernail running rogue

across the grains here

at the table in this low-lit

pub where

let me repeat myself

I’m just reading

reading by myself here

and running a grain of fennel

around my teeth

crushing it between molars

and flicking it across my

two incisors and telling you again

look I’m just reading.

 

Did you know

I’m a liquorice woman?

I’m a pepper thing

I’m a girl with cardamom

stuck between her teeth

and let me say this one more time:

leave.

 

---

 Angie Spoto is an American fiction writer and poet with a BA and Masters in Creative Writing. She has lived in Austria, the Netherlands, and now lives in Scotland, where she is completing a Doctorate in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. Her doctorate will culminate in a collection of fantastic and surreal stories that attempt to address the issues of domestic and sexual abuse. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous online and print anthologies, including SWAMP Magazine, Crooked Holster, and From Glasgow to Saturn. Visit her website at http://www.angiespoto.com.