Desire Lines

one word tumbled
and led to another.
like following
desire lines
through wild
unfallen woods.
the tread of rabbits
and wild animals,
bending through wind-
rippled grass. one word
to another — then to more.
he drank his wine,
figured them out
and put new ones
in front of them. sometimes
he went back
and revised things,
but the path burned;
words suggested words
and then others. he was
full of passion — his girl
went in there. the night.
that night, and the alcohol,
of course, the alcohol.
he finished — it was utterly
unreadable. no road
had been built. just his
desire lines; a path
for wild animals,
wild rabbits. he sent it out
anyway, to magazines
for consideration.
this, I must emphasise,
is not it.

ξ

D.S. Maolalaí has been nominated nine times for Best of the Net and seven times for the Pushcart Prize. He has released two collections, Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden (Encircle Press, 2016) and Sad Havoc Among the Birds (Turas Press, 2019). His third collection, Noble Rot, is scheduled for release in April 2022.