SurVision Magazine
An international online magazine
that publishes Surrealist poetry in English.
Issue Ten
DS MAOLALAI
Cockstep
this donkey-bone
morning. this glass-
bottom day. this stretch
and this cock-
step or rooster-step
evening. I could step out
myself with a cock's step,
lay leather to pavement
and open my collar
like a peacock unfolding
his fan. pick up
a tall bottle of italian
cold beer – wear linen,
be slim and sit out.
Below, the sun
getting up: light,
a coiled spring, shatters windows
and the world is a pin-
fired rifle – I don't know
how it works, but I know
it's mechanical, know
that it's slamming things
forward. I get up, get my hands full
of crockery, kick
open doors to the balcony
patio, into the light.
I drink coffee, eat eggs
and slices of toast. below, the sun
makes roads red
as crabshell. makes rivers red.
makes buildings red.
The soup of a hot night
on the nightstand, the fan
coughs, wet as a bed-
bound smoker.
stirring the soup
of an over-hot night,
chugging
and sputtering, gasping
and sweating, choking
all evening
and no
help at all.
DS Maolalai is from Ireland. 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).
