The panel of four School Principals

assembled like a Court Martial.

I found myself in a The Rose & Crown,

making friends with the publican who 

agreed to loan me his telephone.

A discrepancy with the time change 

between Canada and England

resulted in the taking of a pint,

or several braces before the call came. 

I’d become wassailed enough to slip

down a waterslide.

The peat hearth’s pulsing heat

broke me into a lover’s sudor.

Our black-haired barmaid shushed locals 

who crowded too close. I began laughing 

with inanity, quickly reeled it in,

over pronouncing words 

to avoid sodden tumbles, 

ignoring whispered advice of gawkers, 

drinking the moment to its lees, 

ended the interview to barroom cheers,

I’ve been teaching for twenty years.

---

Gerald Arthur (Art) Moore is an adventurer, a part-time university lecturer, a high school teacher, and a rugby coach living in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. NON-Publishing released his first book of poetry Shatter the Glass, Shards of Flame in 2018. He received the PubHouse Books Chapbook prize in 2019 for Trigger Fingers. His work has appeared in Queen’s Quarterly, Prairie Fire, Exile Quarterly, Existere, Vallum, The Antigonish Review, The Nashwaak Review, The Dalhousie Review, Qwerty, Off the Coast, The Pennysylvania Review, Boston Poetry Magazine, Quills, The Sandy River Review, The River, Orca, and The Military Review. Moore has led six humanitarian work projects to Haiti since the devastating earthquake there in 2010. His employment history includes army officer and vintner. His newest book is titled Flak Jacket 2024. His forthcoming book is Rat Romeo 2026.