Wednesday, September 07, 2022

New Poetry by DS Maolalai










How to be funny 

- for Michelle 

I can't help it – I say things 
that are needlessly, 
thoughtlessly cruel. I'm sometimes 
a snob, and I sometimes think how  
to be funny is by telling people  
they aren't clever  
in ways they won't notice, 
or not right away. in work  
there's this girl – we get on 
but I talk her down often, 
as if we weren't exactly  
the same sort of fool – both  
answering emails and phones 
to be snarled at by strangers eight 
hours each day. but she gets in a bother  
(she cares about people) 
and I can't help then  
but laugh, because I do  
less often than she. a poem like this 
will end generally  
with a pat little metaphor.  
I need more of an instinct 
for how to be kind.


- © DS Maolalai 2022


DS Maolalai has received eleven nominations for Best of the Net and seven for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry 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) 

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