on the tram track up chancery,
coming from capel street,
two men throw their shadows
with the 10pm sunset.
they are out of the gym.
are both wide at shoulder-height
as sitting room windows.
muscles shine, shifting
like seagulls in oilslicks.
their tops cling like paint
onto parking spaces. they move
as machines do, pistons
pneumatic and everything.
they don’t carry the sky
on their backs
but they could if they wanted.
DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as “a cosmopolitan poet” and another as “prolific, bordering on incontinent”. His work has been nominated thirteen times for BOTN, ten for the Pushcart and once for the Forward Prize, and 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)
Euphony Journal 