"The Weight of Moving On" by DS Maolalai

The Weight of Moving On

boxes fill out: ballast
in our hallway.
if home were a rowboat
we'd be quick to capsize.
slowly, the weight goes down
portside and drags us
to somewhere no
longer our space. all books,

all bagged t-shirts
and pants, miscellaneous
items — moving upriver
with a salmon-
steady stroke.
the net catching;
their stacks
in iceboxes
in the van. life pours,

it goes forward, rolling with gravity
moving, and the weight
of moving on. I walk through the house
on the hunt for lost
details; forgotten socks,
dead mice in the corner.
old and half-read paperbacks
lurking with the caution of otters.

ds maolalai

DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as a cosmopolitan poet and another as prolific, bordering on incontinent. His work has been nominated twelve times for Best of the Net; eight times for the Pushcart Prize; and once for the Forward Prize; and 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).

Headshot: Christy Chan

Photo Credit: Staff