Clade Song 14

The Road Cracks

like a log and it burns
like a log and it steams
like a shirt and the flat
of an iron. summer smears air
in a flat jam of haze
making lies to the sky
about water. kills birds
under cars. kills badgers
and dogs. I drive,
choose for music and bite
some horizon. my friends
sit in backseat
and drink – “take a sip
every time you see
roadkill”. we are heading
southwest yet again
in this poem. in this poem
it's summer: we live
in these moments
and die in the next
moment after.
springing from dublin
like a spark from the hearth
to a carpet
which smoulders and then
is stamped out.

DS Maolalaí has been described by one editor as "a cosmopolitan poet" and another as "prolific, bordering on incontinent". His work has nominated twelve times for Best of the Net, ten for the Pushcart and once for the Forward Prize, and has been released in three collections; Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden (Encircle Press, 2016), Sad Havoc Among the Birds (Turas Press, 2019) and Noble Rot (Turas Press, 2022)