God bless all days

I remember nights drinking
in london especially. my fresh
early twenties and meeting
a girl. one at this metal bar. she was
american. and others – there were all
sorts of others. bringing them home
to my golders green bedsit –
getting arms and legs tangled
in north london sheets like deep tree
roots which break rocks to pieces;
which pull down whole mountains to dust.

and I was in pieces as well, just after
this break-up – was tearing
like bread up for birds. I was smoking
so much – I still smoke occasionally.
and daytime was nothing –
the world opened up
like a flower in moonlight
at night, courting moths.
like legs – like a coat
coming off as the bedsit door
closes and falling to carpets –
a shoe going over, a pantleg in tangles

at your knee and the other leg
free as a twenty. god bless all girls
and all bars and all flowers. god bless
all days which open out into nights. ​

Image by  Marcel Heil / Unsplash
​
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)

Twitter: @diarmo1990