DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as “a cosmopolitan poet” and another as “prolific, bordering on incontinent”. His work has nominated eleven times for Best of the Net, eight for the Pushcart Prize and once for the Forward Prize, and has been released in three collections; “Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden” (Encircle Press, 2016), “Sad Havoc Among the Birds” (Turas Press, 2019) and “Noble Rot” (Turas Press, 2022)

The whole time you’re married

jack asks if anything’s
going tonight. I say
I’m at the urgent care
rn w/ chrysty. well – I’m
outside it – they wouldn’t
let me wait. he says oh.
I say yeah –
she stood wrong
and fucked up
an ankle. he says oh.

I say yeah. anyway
I’m killing time in cherry
wood – southside
of dublin, far down
as the M50 ring
road can bring you
before it becomes
the road south. there’s a pond
by the urgent care,
various birds,
and across there
a spar with some
tables. I buy the last
sandwich, some peanuts

and red wine for later. these kids
wearing bathrobes are hanging
outside. they look something like wizards
just old enough to yell
at a guy on his own
but they don’t. I sit in the car, eat
and get out again. walk down
to the bypass and look at the cars
all bypassing the city
for wexford. after a while
jack texts me again: will you be like this
the whole time you’re married?

and the air is so calm, and the sky
so incredibly peaceful, and all around
buildings are just newly built.