By DS Maolalai
they’ve changed up the layout
of the greengrocer shop
by the corner in stoneybatter
opposite mulligans. I ponder it,
hands full and buying my vegetables,
filling my basket with green.
the counter is down
by the entrance now – I am
confused, like a dog on the carpet
when you haven’t thrown anything
standing and watching your hand.
I pick out potatoes and apples,
some carrots. it can’t be security –
who shoplifts celery? and it makes
a crowd happen where people come in.
I pick pears – I am careful,
they bruise and I like them.
pick out sweet potatoes, some parsnips,
some celery. get twelve eggs also
and cauliflower. we are on a diet
in our house until after
the wedding – on weekdays we eat
only veg and some eggs.
the daughter’s at the counter.
she’s a nurse now, I think,
or a student of something
or other. why is the counter down
here now, I ask her.
I don’t know, she says,
as she adds up my bill
he just moved it. twenty two thirty five.
DS Maolalai has received nine 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)
