Steering the whale.
driving through town
in a car with sunglasses, like steering a whale
between reefs. earth laid out;
all open, bare, all invitation. the sun
drying rocks
and passing girls
in french summer dresses – sweet as growing
fruit. the radio goes – talk or music, either way
it’s movement, and you
are movement too, taking corners
like god himself
would spin. driving with sunglasses, music
and your shirt unbuttoned for summer; a spike out of water
made of more water,
sinking the sky like your car is a cock
and the ocean
is fucking the horizon.
A feeling.
lemons
picked from the vine
and squeezed like fingers,
sick
in good weather.
and we are both
radios now;
flipped out the window
at a sign
of bad news.
and the sky rots
and drops us like salt.
life
is burning;
a 3 legged dog
rotting by the shopfront
while someone inside
fetches milk.
DS Maolalai has been nominated for Best of the Web and twice for the Pushcart Prize. His first collection, “Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden”, was published in 2016 by the Encircle Press, with “Sad Havoc Among the Birds” forthcoming from Turas Press in 2019.