ISSUE FOUR: March, 2020

A MYSTIC OUT OF SLIGO

I enter the shop
and this is in sligo; somewhere
off the main roads
and surrounded by things
named for yeats. I hate yeats
compulsively, like a teenager
with his parents,
but I'm not going to complain
if an egg wants to talk
about chickens. a bell rings
and the shopkeeper
looks at me. I'm in for a magazine -
the most recent issue -
they publish it here
and I'm printed. I ask
if he's the editor, shake hands
and introduce myself. he's published me
before, but it's always a little awkward,
the nodding and the compliments. we talk a little;
it's not awkward. I tell him
maybe I'll come to the reading later,
knowing that I won't. he's a bit like yeats,
although more likable;
another mystic
just out of sligo. outside,
my girlfriend
pulls at the dog
and watches me talk
through the window.

DS MAOLALAI has been nominated four times for Best of the Net and three 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)