Beauty
scratching my face
in the morning. I am
a broken plate – certain edges
you can’t smooth
and then
they’re useless
to eat off. some
look good with stubble – I don’t even
manage
to look good
shaved. I think
it’s the sharp chin,
swimming in life
like a shark through water. I try my best
but what of it? my electric razor
hums in the morning
and breaks against the challenge
of making me
more beautiful. all its value
lies in making the silence
less.
Hosting
at 5pm
I shift the table
from the corner
into the middle of the kitchen. it is waiting
for a plate of salad eggs, a brown bowl
of chorizo stew
and everyone to sit around
and yell. I am used to this – parties,
not hosting – but chrys knows
where things should go. I let her
do it, but still, I am embarrassed
when the guests arrive
and see the new place – uncomfortably aware
that suddenly the garden
smells of dogshit
my bedroom
is full of laundry.
Ingoldsby
I sent a message through facebook:
do you know how to reach
pat ingoldsby?
I had book of poems coming out in the spring
and I was hoping he would maybe
say something
I could put on the back cover.
I got a message back:
we don’t know
how to reach him
but he sells his books on college green
under the central bank
you can just talk to him there
if you want to talk to him
I sent a message back:
I’m in canada right now;
the book is coming out in america
I can’t meet him in person
do you think you can get a copy to him
I have attached a pdf
that the editors have sent me
hoping I can get endorsements
from well known poets
no response.
I suppose perhaps
he didn’t like what I had written
or they had decided not to show him
or he had cycled once
down along college green
and up
george’s street
and down
through an unbalanced
manhole cover.
I’ve gotten back to Ireland since
and I haven’t seen him
selling his books anywhere.
I hope something good
has happened to him.
DS Maolalai has been nominated for Best of the Web and twice 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)
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