<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
a ragged shirt sometimes not I am I wish daffodils I am a tugboat <\/p>\n <\/p>\n DS Maolalai<\/strong> is a poet from Ireland who has been writing and publishing poetry for almost 10 years. His\u00a0first collection, Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden,<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Slim a ragged shirt and a chest like a broken toast rack. I am a tall man, well jawed, but skinny, not slim; there’s a difference and I think it’s a lot of in the way you carry yourself. sometimes I can be slim; I walk down Camden St or along the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18127"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18211,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18127\/revisions\/18211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSlim<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nand a
\nchest
\nlike a broken toast rack.
\nI am
\na tall
\nman,
\nwell jawed,
\nbut skinny,
\nnot slim;
\nthere’s a difference
\nand I think it’s a lot of
\nin the way you carry
\nyourself.<\/p>\n
\nI can be slim;
\nI walk down Camden St
\nor along the Liffey
\nor canals
\nand then
\nI feel good,
\nwearing
\nthe right shirt
\nand the right pair
\nof trousers,
\ncutting
\na sharp line.<\/p>\n
\nlike the ones I have today;
\nthey’re too baggy
\nwith the collar
\ntore up
\nso white cotton
\nshows through the blue,
\nshining
\nlike a rotten sun.<\/p>\n
\na ragdoll
\nrat,
\nsize
\ntoo big
\nto fit
\nand too leaden
\nto love. I
\nam a broken grass-stalk
\nor a crisp packet
\ntore and forgotten
\nin a jacket pocket.<\/p>\n
\nI was built like a steamtruck,
\nlike those guys
\nwhose fat
\nhides muscle
\nbut if I put on weight
\nit goes into my guts
\ninstead of my shoulders.<\/p>\n
\nbreak off in may
\nand their seeds
\nget ripe for the summer.<\/p>\n
\nrotten by the pier,
\nall in the bilges,
\nnothing the mast.<\/p>\n