The Edge of Every City by DS Maolalai
cement stacks like sawdust
on the edge of every city. pushing
through a quarter-tank
along the M50 outside of Dublin,
and it's just like
exiting Toronto,
and just like exiting
New York, or the outskirts
of certain parts of London; a messy piled up plate
with business parks, roadsigns and car dealerships,
slip-ramps to towns with no history to speak of,
water-tankers and the occasional petrol station.
bridges overhead
like the ribs of dead horses
forgotten
and rotting on a beach. smoke
catching under smoke, and
you could be going
anywhere. your hand
trails on the gear lever,
looking to your sides. you find it;
already
it's in 5th.
on the edge of every city. pushing
through a quarter-tank
along the M50 outside of Dublin,
and it's just like
exiting Toronto,
and just like exiting
New York, or the outskirts
of certain parts of London; a messy piled up plate
with business parks, roadsigns and car dealerships,
slip-ramps to towns with no history to speak of,
water-tankers and the occasional petrol station.
bridges overhead
like the ribs of dead horses
forgotten
and rotting on a beach. smoke
catching under smoke, and
you could be going
anywhere. your hand
trails on the gear lever,
looking to your sides. you find it;
already
it's in 5th.
DS Maolalai has been nominated four times for Best of the Net and three 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).
A 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee, DS's poem can be found in Issue 20 of Glassworks.
