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Bones knit by DS Maolalai

my feelings lately
are so tender 

all the time – like holding a broken 

arm against my body. 

I cradle them, wrapped 

in their improvised bandage,

torn from the cotton 

of shirts. and how can anyone

grow used to this 

dull aching? I suppose

bones do knit, if you leave them

alone, but after work

and every afternoon

I am like someone 

who's gone down a staircase

to quickly, standing in a daze 

and checking my unsteady

body. and you

are on the sofa 

in the sitting room,

with a thumb holding open 

a paperback, your legs 

cuddled up 

underneath you.

and you look at me, looking,

and say "are you ok?"

and I'm ok.


---

DS Maolalai has been nominated seven 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)

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