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 nominated eight times for Best of the Net and five times 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)