Stranger on the Street by Anna Teresa Slater
A man riding a unicycle inspires a poem and another way to live.
Published in the author’s poetry collection, A Singular, Spectacular Chore (2020), from Kasingkasing Press.
From the author:
I was in a car with my mom driving along the La Paz Market in Iloilo when I spotted a man on a unicycle in front of us. I had never seen anyone ride a unicycle on a public road before and was instantly in awe of being able to witness it. He was wearing a white t-shirt, shorts, and slippers, and was carrying a plastic bag full of vegetables in one hand. I’ve tried riding a unicycle before, and it was extremely difficult to move even two feet without falling to the side. I never tried it again. And yet here was this man going about his day on a unicycle as if it was the most regular thing in the world. I was more starstruck with him than any celebrity I had ever come across. I was able to take a quick photo of him and eventually used an edited version of it on the front cover of my first poetry collection. The collection title, A Singular, Spectacular Chore, was also lifted from the poem.
I want the old man on the unicycle to listen to my prayers. Maybe― on his way home, his left arm a wand scribbling gravity spells in the air, his right swinging a blue plastic bag, circling like a gentle carousel, leafy greens erupting from above―he has got the ripped out pages from the back of the book. Maybe he’s the one who holds the instructions to a dragon-slayer life. His shirt glittering with holes, shorts cut off above his sunshine knees, slippers with weary soles scrolled over pedals, and his spine so upright one could measure pyramids with it. I wish the old man on the unicycle would teach me how to strip one’s second-by-second existence down to the essence of a singular, spectacular chore, or how to fetch vegetables from the corner store without falling over.
Anna Teresa Slater is a teacher from Iloilo, Philippines. She has a diploma in AB Philosophy from De La Salle University and completed her MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. Her work is published in Channel Lit Mag, Ghost City Review, Palette Poetry, Harana Poetry, Song of Eretz Poetry Review, and more, as well as in anthologies by Kasingkasing Press and Hedgehog Poetry Press. Her first poetry collection, A Singular, Spectacular Chore (Kasingkasing Press), was released as an e-book in 2020 and in paperback in 2022. The collection was in the Readers’ Choice Awards’ top 10 poetry books for 2019–2021.
Website: annateresapoetry.com
Did you enjoy this piece? If you’d like to order the author’s book, A Singular, Spectacular Chore, you may contact her at annatcslater@gmail.com.
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