Crabs and Netted Mackerel

by DS Maolalai

we rolled boats
homeward; birds
calling after
and the corners
of the world
turning surfaced
like the inside
of a bowl
filled with cherries. 

somewhere
people
were buying drinks
on beaches
and old men 
were looking to waves. somewhere
we were to be welcomed
like heroes. our load
was crabs,
lobsters
and netted mackerel. veg
would be peeled when we got in,
roasted apples
and opened wines.
the best drunks in town
would already be steaming. 

hope grows everywhere
like moss on the wall of a toilet.
love was coming.
great
and stinking love.
the boats rocked
with anticipation,
gentle
as the parts of a clock.

when storms come
they come suddenly
and always from behind us
and we are lost
within distance of the pier.

Dandelion Clocks

by DS Maolalai

I explore tradition
for her amusement. the old one
where blow
until all the seeds are gone
to tell what time 
it is. and the new ones
fresh
from primary school
how if you touch the juice
from the stem
you’ll piss yourself. and using them
to show
who likes butter. strange the lessons
which grow up
around plants. strange too, explaining it too,
after having tell someone
that the yellow ones
are the white ones
but in different stages
of season.

D.S. 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). These two poems by Maolalai were first published in Channel Issue 1.