Foreshadowing
DS Maolalai (Atlantic Technical University, Ireland)
the drive home on friday after two
separate crashes. the first one
just traffic backed up as I join the dual
carriageway, right to the junction –
an easy diversion through citywest. then five
minutes later another one, new
when I get there; a car with front wheels
on the centre divider, like a dog trying to climb
up a sofa. a bemused looking man
inside with his hands on the steering wheel.
an airbag wilting over a dent in the door
and my wheels crunching siding, some glass
and a wing mirror; sharp sounds like walnuts
on the 1st of november. a blink
of quick indicator, passing and moving
on forward – for a few hundred meters
just after make pretty good time.
at the inchicore tram stop the road
takes a tributary and, except
for knowing where one ambulance
was going, the drive home
is the same as any day.
DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as “a cosmopolitan poet” and another as “prolific, bordering on incontinent”. His work has nominated eleven times for Best of the Net, eight for the Pushcart Prize and once for the Forward Prize, and 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).
