my feelings lately
are so tender
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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