Today the dog is tired of me

and all my writing
poems. she comes
and sits in the kitchen,
with her tail banging
and a growling cough. she doesn’t like it; my writing
these poems in the kitchen – she likes walking
and going to the garden sometimes. she’d be ok, I think,
if for just once
I’d write on the sofa. she could sit up
next to me, curl her head
in. I get my hands under
and place her on the table,
hoping for some inspiration,
and go back. she grumbles to get down again
and goes to bed grumbling.
I look at her;
look at the poems
I’ve wrote, look out the window.
perhaps
we are both
diminishing.

—

DS Maolalai has been nominated for Best of the Web and twice 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)