In the bars, old men

By DS Maolalai. Published on April 1, 2023.

In the bars, old men

on the corner of Bathurst

and College St; north, just above

Little Italy. flags fly 

for football games, finished 

six hours ago, played 

in Milan against Germany. 

in the bars, the old men

have been drinking since seven. 

it’s now about lunchtime; they're really

quite drunk. there's a bookshop – 

I go – find a first print-

run Brautigan. dandelions break 

through the pavement in clusters

like hairs on the top

of a mole.

DS Maolalai has been nominated eleven times for Best of the Net, eight for the Pushcart Prize and once for the Forward Prize. His poetry has been released in three collections, most recently "Sad Havoc Among the Birds" (Turas Press, 2019) and “Noble Rot” (Turas Press, 2022).