DS Maolalai
has been nominated nine times for Best of the Net and seven 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)
After the storm
branches about
like dropped broken
animal bones. cow bones
and sheep bones. chicken
bones; a slaughterhouse.
blood-soaking roads
and clouds like grey
bandages, winding up some-
body's wrist. people
leaving houses
very quietly together –
looking at the world
and not talking. and no –
it's not a slaughterhouse.
a hospital. peaceful
in the aftermath
as cups of boiled tap-
water. left out
on a countertop
to cool.