DS Maolalai
Building a pipebomb one year near halloween.
breaking open lighters
to get our fingers at the flints - ciaran
has brought along a hammer,
a length of tubing
and a couple of black-cats
bought in belfast
and smuggled down the train. he is methodical -
he knows what he's doing. first
one end of the pipe is flattened on a brick.
it's a bit of cheap copper,
taken from some broken garden furniture,
orange gold
and shining on the sun. as he strikes
the surface scratches, turns silver
and clashes like a two euro coin.
the black-cats
are broken
and their powder
slid down the other end of the tube
once he's satisfied it's flat enough
to hold the payload. then
the shrapnel - paperclips,
thumbtacks, some rusted nails
out of a paper bag. he packs them in
good and tight
and adds the flint on top.
then a final firework,
inserted in the exit
snug
as a sock in a shoe. it fits perfectly,
very serendipitous
and locks the whole lot in.
we never light it -
he spent 20 euros for the parts
and the best part of an afternoon in construction.
we have an explosive
without knowing why
DS Maolalai recently returned to Ireland after four years away, now spending his days working maintenance dispatch for a bank and his nights looking out the window and wishing he had a view. His first collection, Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden, was published in 2016 by the Encircle Press. He has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.