16 AND 30 AND JOYCE
it's 7pm and dublin
has sleep in its eyes.
it's not a city that moves much, honestly.
I am on college green, I am
in that shop by the central bank
which was famous as a teenager
for not checking ID.
I am buying a coke – I don't
need ID and each can
is so dusty. and outside the traffic
somnambulists eastward, down
toward trinity, north like the turn
of a current. it's november – the air
is quite cold but it isn't
uncomfortable. nothing's
uncomfortable - I've stepped on this pavement
so often they should write
my name down. it's beautiful – 16
with a naggin of whiskey
on patrick's day. it's beautiful – 30
with a can of coke
on a tuesday with hands
in my pockets. and looking
up everything's much as it was
when I was 16 and when james
joyce made dedalus pass here.
and before that also.
what am I saying? that I'm here
and I like being here.
DS Maolalai has been nominated nine times for Best of the Net and five times for the Pushcart Prize. 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)