Nothing surprises or delights me

For my wife on Reunion Day, Chinese New Year

the food is good. the wine
good. the cigarettes 
as you expect them. 
in the centre of the city
where the river is edging 
to estuary, birds flap over
crab bones and occasionally
visible bicycles. oranges 
taste like their colour 
and bananas like yellow
and bacon like brown. 
windows on apartment blocks
light up white squares; 
spaced out careful as dealt 
games of solitaire. chrysty
without you here everything 
is as it should be. 

DS MAOLALAI

DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as “a cosmopolitan poet” and another as “prolific, bordering on incontinent.” His work has been nominated twelve times for BOTN, ten for the Pushcart and once for the Forward Prize, and has been released in three collections, most recently Noble Rot (Turas Press, 2022)