Being stone

she had stayed with this couple

in vienna a summer. they were friends

of her mother's, and the husband

was completely infatuated. it was understandable:

she played the piano, spoke several languages,

had the sort of soft beauty that sculpture

can't capture, being stone. she was seventeen, and the wife

of the husband had blamed her completely,

and her mother for having her. there were several

phone calls. a quite famous letter. this sort of thing happens

to europeans of the educated class. fallon shared

some of the details – that man has a knack

or a habit for meeting young women

who's grandparents lost all their status

and lands in revolutionary wars, but have maintained

their connections and libraries. she wrote a short novel

about it apparently; it sounds like the sort of thing

I wouldn't want to read.

D.S. Maolalai

ABOUT THE POET:

DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as "a cosmopolitan poet" and another as "prolific, bordering on incontinent". His work has been nominated fourteen times for BOTN, eleven for the Pushcart and once for the Forward Prize, and 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).