Man Who is Irritated

[Poet]

Listen to the annoyance of the pedestrian man.
He harpoons swear words to speak to you.
His voice is as abrasive as a teacher scratching a chalkboard.
He disturbs the residents of Toronto with his flailing arms
like vultures. He calls himself The Irritated Man.
He sometimes douses fire with his hands and makes a scene.
Acting like a baboon and having time to parade iridescent streets.
You wonder if this man is either high, intoxicated, or insane.
The Irritated Man flips his hair like surfer dudes and leaps up and down.
He sets himself on fire to get peoples attention.
He is a known arsonist.
The police arrive and he makes a scene again.
You take pictures, he runs at you like a crazed hobo.
“Turn that fucking shit off!” he says. And you jog off into the sunset.
What kind of person are you to take pictures?
You hear sounds of ceremonial marching bands trekking along cemented roads.
While you look for the homeless man caught in flames.
All you hear is silence.
The Irritated Man punches you, attempts to slit your throat, breaks your two front teeth.
You sit there on a slab of concrete scared out of your mind in a
city where no one cares about you.
Blood racing to your head, ears, back, thighs, arms, swooshing inside you.
What do you do when the Irritated Man arrives to body you?
You must be prepared to knock him out.
Take heed of the Irritated Man.
Or he may make you commit suicide; wouldn’t that be fun?

[jcnash]

I really like this one. I admire the unconstrained freedom with which it's written; I don't know whether this is an artifice or whether it's the way you naturally write... but I wish I could inject a bit of that into my own work.

Pretty much perfect as it is, I reckon. One extremely minor typo I noticed in the 4th line from the end, you've referenced him as The Irritated Man throughout, in this line you've not capitalised 'the'. That's all I've got.

Not heard 'body' used as a verb like that before, I assume it's slang for 'to kill'?

Cheers,
nash.

[Poet]

I really like this one. I admire the unconstrained freedom with which it's written; I don't know whether this is an artifice or whether it's the way you naturally write... but I wish I could inject a bit of that into my own work.

Pretty much perfect as it is, I reckon. One extremely minor typo I noticed in the 4th line from the end, you've referenced him as The Irritated Man throughout, in this line you've not capitalised 'the'. That's all I've got.

Not heard 'body' used as a verb like that before, I assume it's slang for 'to kill'?

Cheers,
nash.

I didn't notice that 4th line where I needed to put a capital "t" thanks for noticing, and yes body is meant as to get beaten up. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this poem. Oh by the way this is how I used to write but I don't write like this anymore.