DS Maolalai

Good Novel Country

the trouble

you begin to realise

is the climate. here

it's too wet

for real poetry.

good novel country, sure. good country

for sitting indoors

sat at a table

and spending a long time

thinking

about things people do

and the ways in which they do them.

good country for modernism.

good for time

spent killing time.

someone said: everyone in toronto is in a band; everyone in london

is a photographer; everyone in san francisco

developing an app; everyone

in dublin writing a novel. maybe we like

long stories that keep us

indoors. long stories

that keep us from drinking.

I was born

for countries you go outside in. I was born

to wander empty beaches

and play patience on the porch. I was born

full of sick longings

that never panned out

and dreams of looking romantic

sunburned under bridges,

and a hot sun on the skyline

while driving in high gear.

I was born

to be born

somewhere people go on holiday.

fuck the filthy luck

that dumped me

here.

DS Maolalai recently returned to Ireland after four years away, now spending his days working maintenance dispatch for a bank and his nights looking out the window and wishing he had a view. His first collection, Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden, was published in 2016 by the Encircle Press. He has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.