I hear them scratching

D.S. Maolalai

she's complaining about rats

again in her dropped kitchen ceiling.

we've had the boys out

twice last week to block

holes and lay poison

in clam plastic dog-

proof box cases.

I hear them scratching.

I heard them scratching

again last night. I know

you don't believe me but

I hear them.

I believe her. she leaves out saucers

for the bluetits and starlings.

from her patio in tallaght you can see

the undeveloped dublin mountains:

blue everywhere. everywhere else

there is traffic – roads and fields

pending the building of houses.

I would leave food out as well. I tell her

to stop leaving food out. she tells me

she will when she's not there

to watch them. she won't.

I wouldn't either. I wouldn't.

D.S. Maolalai fue descrito por un editor como "un poeta cosmopolitano", y por otro como "prolífico, bordeando en la incontinencia". Su trabajo ha sido nominado trece veces para el premio Best Of The Net, diez veces para el premio Pushcart, y ha sido publicado en tres colecciones, recientemente, en "Noble Rot" (Turas Press, 2022).

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