DS Maolalai

Separate futures

conversations which spangle
and spread out in flowers
like wrought-iron window
ledged loft-level balconies –
views of Parisian streets.

and Fallon is planning
to go back there this summer.
and Goggin a Galway
university placement
doing research
on long-extinct life.
Baker’s bought land
and has claimed a quite serious
girlfriend, and I'd be remiss
to dismiss my own life
of development – engaged
to be married, and happy

with Chrysty, though I try
not to bring it up
much. we sit
out on lawn chairs
in Baker's back garden
at the top of its hill
over Dublin. look past
football fields, into
the city below us
as far away as childhood
and life. talk of our separate
futures, as travelers
of landscapes
and maps.

DS Maolalai has received eleven nominations for Best of the Net and eight for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry 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)