DS Maolailai
the ancient chinese poets
what I like;
they drank their wine
in cups and
wrote poems
about wine
and poems
about mountains and rivers. and sometimes
they made it clear
a poem was addressed only
to a single person
and not,
as we do,
trying to please
the whole world.
but they still sent them out, folded in boats
and burning; watching
how they floated
as the rivers filled
with ash.
the ancient chinese poets
what I like;
they drank their wine
in cups and
wrote poems
about wine
and poems
about mountains and rivers. and sometimes
they made it clear
a poem was addressed only
to a single person
and not,
as we do,
trying to please
the whole world.
but they still sent them out, folded in boats
and burning; watching
how they floated
as the rivers filled
with ash.
DS Maolalai is a poet from Ireland who has been writing and publishing poetry for almost 10 years. His first collection, Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden, was published in 2016 by the Encircle Press, and he has a second collection forthcoming from Turas Press in 2019. He has been nominated for Best of the Web and twice for the Pushcart Prize.