Two Poems

by

DS Maolalaí

Herons

 

they’ve pulled out the chairs

to the carpark,

with some tables to sit

and drink coffee.

a quite nice

idea, I guess

you could say, but nobody

ever goes

on with it. the cafe

is a quite busy

roadside location

and shaded

by the weight

of tall buildings,

dead trees. the folding tables

stand there, on patient

thin legs,

like herons

toward sunset

picking fish

from their streams.

Would Natalie hate me for this?

 

I guess you would think

I’d become somewhat changed

if you saw how I’ve been

acting lately.certainly

I’ve gone much

more left-wing than I was,

and properly so,

too; lucky

I talked to the right people

or I’d probably be one of those pricks

on the internet, devil’s

advocating ethnostates

and white strength

and conservatism.

 

you were the start

I think

of my eventual revolution

but not the end of it. and I think

you first went off me

when I told you

I didn’t have an opinion on abortion

and now

4 years later

a lot of my politics

have boiled down to

traces of your opinion

and “would Natalie

hate me for this?”

 

still,

I think I’m glad you dumped me,

even though we’d probably

have fit together

well enough

with time.

I’m a better person than I was, or

more progressive anyway.

 

and I’ve met Chrysty too

and I’m very happy

with her.

Two Poems

by

DS Maolalaí

Herons

 

they’ve pulled out the chairs

to the carpark,

with some tables to sit

and drink coffee.

a quite nice

idea, I guess

you could say, but nobody

ever goes

on with it. the cafe

is a quite busy

roadside location

and shaded

by the weight

of tall buildings,

dead trees. the folding tables

stand there, on patient

thin legs,

like herons

toward sunset

picking fish

from their streams.

Would Natalie hate me for this?

 

I guess you would think

I’d become somewhat changed

if you saw how I’ve been

acting lately.certainly

I’ve gone much

more left-wing than I was,

and properly so,

too;lucky

I talked to the right people

or I’d probably be one of those pricks

on the internet, devil’s

advocating ethnostates

and white strength

and conservatism.

 

you were the start

I think

of my eventual revolution

but not the end of it. and I think

you first went off me

when I told you

I didn’t have an opinion on abortion

and now

4 years later

a lot of my politics

have boiled down to

traces of your opinion

and “would Natalie

hate me for this?”

 

still,

I think I’m glad you dumped me,

even though we’d probably

have fit together

well enough

with time.

I’m a better person than I was, or

more progressive anyway.

 

and I’ve met Chrysty too

and I’m very happy

with her.

DS Maolalaí has been nominated eight times for Best of the Net and five times for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry has been released in two collections, Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden (Encircle Press, 2016) and Sad Havoc Among the Birds (Turas Press, 2019).