Guts
DS Maolalai
they are pulling the guts
from the storefront.
like a gull in an alley
with a freshly dead
cat. dragging down planking
and pipework from drywall –
dust-masks and goggles, overalls
covered in dust. I walk by
on saturday, a sunned afternoon,
pulling air in my lungs,
getting over a fight
with my girlfriend. a saw
cuts the silence and slices
through roughly shaped
timbers. something
better, perhaps,
is intended for in there
once what's rotten there now
is pulled out.
DS Maolalai has received eleven nominations for Best of the Net and seven 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). You can find him on Twitter: @diarmo1990