"My family calls me Abacus" by Ewen Glass
Poetry
My family calls me Abacus
because I keep score.
It has the poise of a joke;
swan-frantic below, their
concern that I recall in
stomach and breath
something more than losing,
the frustration of learning
to count, back and forth,
up, on them. Bygone eyes
on balance, we try for a
score we can all live with.
Ewen Glass (he/him) is a screenwriter and poet from Northern Ireland who lives with two dogs, a tortoise and a body of self-doubt; his poetry has appeared in the likes of Okay Donkey, Maudlin House, HAD, Poetry Scotland and One Art. Bluesky/IG: