{"id":14756,"date":"2023-06-12T20:48:05","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T18:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=14756"},"modified":"2023-06-12T10:49:27","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T08:49:27","slug":"poems-by-ds-maolalai-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=14756","title":{"rendered":"poems by DS Maolalai"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warmth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the penny-pay laundry<\/p>\n

is swampland in summer,<\/p>\n

so close and boiled over<\/p>\n

like hell with soap<\/p>\n

and steam; rumbling in winter<\/p>\n

and a round rolling heat,<\/p>\n

the fragrant tops<\/p>\n

of mushrooms<\/p>\n

breaking up through paved snow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I carry the bag<\/p>\n

from apt to laundry.<\/p>\n

my fingers are cold,<\/p>\n

there\u2019s a paperback in<\/p>\n

my back pocket. piled<\/p>\n

on a table, the clothes<\/p>\n

feel warm also,<\/p>\n

with that sickening softness<\/p>\n

of rotting worn leaves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I count out quarters,<\/p>\n

from the quarter machine<\/p>\n

and drop in 12;<\/p>\n

15 minutes each. I put the rest<\/p>\n

in my pocket<\/p>\n

for the dryer<\/p>\n

and wipe my hand<\/p>\n

on my jeans.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No rent<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

he’s working for his aunt<\/p>\n

and his cousin in the cousin’s<\/p>\n

new house. a room for no rent<\/p>\n

in exchange for some labour \u2013 he’s<\/p>\n

been fixing things up: painting walls,<\/p>\n

cutting drywall and putting up<\/p>\n

skirting in doorways. he invites<\/p>\n

us around for some beer on a saturday<\/p>\n

evening. it’s weird going over<\/p>\n

to his family’s house \u2013 saying hi,<\/p>\n

we are here to see the servant.<\/p>\n

we brought some blue moons.<\/p>\n

should we go to the back<\/p>\n

door or what?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Two good days.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nikki cooks pizza<\/p>\n

her first night Toronto<\/p>\n

of these two days<\/p>\n

she\u2019s around for this conference.<\/p>\n

I bring around wine<\/p>\n

and we both smoke some cigarettes,<\/p>\n

listen to storms<\/p>\n

watching comedy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the second night<\/p>\n

she’s ordered Ethiopian<\/p>\n

in, and it tastes pretty good<\/p>\n

though the bread<\/p>\n

much too soggy for my taste.<\/p>\n

she still has some wine left<\/p>\n

which I drink by myself<\/p>\n

and go outside to smoke<\/p>\n

because it’s dry tonight.<\/p>\n

we fuck like gods all afternoon<\/p>\n

and all evening; wrap ourselves in blankets,<\/p>\n

pretending there’s another storm<\/p>\n

so we have an excuse to stay in,<\/p>\n

trading mouthfuls of hot beef<\/p>\n

and hot tongue and hot teeth,<\/p>\n

touching each other<\/p>\n

and watching more comedy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Snow and the gossip<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

in line at the post office<\/p>\n

in blessington on friday.<\/p>\n

we’ve had snow and the gossip<\/p>\n

is all about snow. will it fall again<\/p>\n

do we think, or just frost. either way the ladies<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ahead won’t be walking. they’re vocal<\/p>\n

about risking a sprain. at least though,<\/p>\n

one says, it keeps the blacks out of the street<\/p>\n

since they naturally can’t stand the weather.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

jesus \u2013 I think about saying something.<\/p>\n

I don’t \u2013 they are both pushing 80. but I think<\/p>\n

it, and look very angry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Coast Road, 10pm<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

over the bayline<\/p>\n

our city goes brilliant,<\/p>\n

shining like sunlight<\/p>\n

on exposed crops<\/p>\n

of rock. it’s night-<\/p>\n

time: see diamonds<\/p>\n

in their piles<\/p>\n

of no buildings.<\/p>\n

and I suppose<\/p>\n

over there<\/p>\n

it must look like that<\/p>\n

here. things stack<\/p>\n

up everywhere; distance in light<\/p>\n

and the layering up difference<\/p>\n

of cities. seabirds making noises<\/p>\n

like throwing a paperback book.<\/p>\n

somewhere shops close<\/p>\n

and people light cigarettes. cars go by.<\/p>\n

order food in take-aways<\/p>\n

and light with no texture.<\/p>\n

roadsides, the silence<\/p>\n

of sealines,<\/p>\n

rubbed rough<\/p>\n

with the movement of cars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warmth.   the penny-pay laundry is swampland in summer, so close and boiled over<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1644,77],"tags":[1404,1645,1123],"class_list":["post-14756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-76","category-english","tag-ds-maolalai","tag-egophobia-76","tag-english"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-3Q0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14757,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14756\/revisions\/14757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}