Much like the bat. by DS Maolalai

and I 

 


(much as the stream 

slows past bends  

which come continuously, 

as it flashes its fins 

like rings on a king- 

fisher’s fingers, 

on the arms of married women 

and unsettled  

wild young men) 

 

will one day retire  

my flouncing, settle down, 

after I have lived finally 

in enough places  

to see that one  

tree’s branch 

is the same  

as another 

and one statue  

commemorates,  

as another, 

some ended  

war, 

 

and I  

 

(much like the bat  

which flitters from belfry,  

from cave and from train station 

to masses of trees  

overlooking the alcove) 

 

will one day decide  

that, in spite  

of such things  

as I’ve yearned for, 

I will be happy  

with a meal of fried  

steak or a porkchop, 

a potato and two kinds of vegetable, 

a book to read in bed at night 

and friends  

to drink and complain to 

once I run out of wants 

for things I can't have now and mores 

and finally am satisfied 

with what anyone could have all along, 

if anyone  

worth thinking about 

were willing to have 

the things available. 

About the Poet:

DS Maolalai has received eleven nominations for Best of the Net and seven for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry has been released in three collections, “Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden” (Encircle Press, 2016), “Sad Havoc Among the Birds” (Turas Press, 2019) and “Noble Rot” (Turas Press, 2022)