As a city boy will

an untrafficked road
in a baking hot summer,
my girlfriend’s ribcage
floats with pictures
of dandelions. I see her
undressed in the morning,
her body quite beautiful, florid
and thorny, a thicket
on an unmaintained rain-
gutter; an over-hot,
storm-tended street.
drinking, her friend
shows his marks off,
and asks me
“why wouldn’t you
match her tattoos?”
I grin, run my fingers
down conifered elbows,
enjoying the foliage
as a city boy will.

DS Maolalai

DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as "a cosmopolitan poet" and another as "prolific, bordering on incontinent". His work has nominated eleven times for Best of the Net, eight for the Pushcart Prize and once for the Forward Prize, and 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)