DONAL MAHONEY - POEMS

Donal Mahoney, a native of Chicago, lives in St. Louis, Missouri. He has worked as an editor for The Chicago Sun-Times, Loyola University Press and Washington University in St. Louis. His fiction and poetry have appeared in various publications, including The Wisconsin Review, The Kansas Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, The Christian Science Monitor, Commonweal, Guwahatian Magazine (India), The Galway Review (Ireland), Public Republic (Bulgaria), The Osprey Review (Wales), The Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey) and other magazines. Some of his work can be found at http://eyeonlifemag.com/the-poetry-locksmith/donal-mahoney-poet.html#sthash.OSYzpgmQ.dpbs

(Photo: Carol Bales)

---

                    Empathy Is Not Pete’s Forte
 
Pete’s never needed 
anything from childhood on.
His parents had it all 
and gave it to him so it’s hard 
for him to understand why 
people who have nothing 
march with placards in the streets
or sneak into another country
to find enough to eat, a place to live,
and raise and educate a family.
 
Empathy is not Pete's forte 
and that can happen when
parents give you everything,
send you to the finest schools,
leave you money you can build 
a business with, go broke 
and still become a billionaire. 
Finally you have everything
and life becomes so boring 
you decide the time has come
to run for president. Such fun.
 
 
                           A Self-Made Man Today
 
I flew out to see  
a high school friend.
from many years ago. 
He was poor back then 
and I was better off.
A matter of parents
and what they did.
 
His mother was a maid
and his father a drunk.
He flunked out of school
and joined the Army
then built a business 
and became a millionaire.
 
He picked me up 
in a black Mercedes
and as we drove off
we saw a young couple 
on the side of the road
holding a sign,  
"Will Work for Food.”
A not uncommon 
sign these days.
 
My friend told me
they’re throwaway people
and America must find
a way to throw them away.
It was a short reunion.
My wife was sick, I said.
I flew home the next day.
My old friend, poor in youth,
is a self-made man today.


                               It Can Happen in a Second
 
Solid middle class he is
always has been
always will be 
 
until tomorrow
on the highway 
in the rain this bus 
 
topples over
on his Dodge Durango.
He will never walk 
 
or work again.
In six months or a year
his savings will be gone.
 
He will be for life
a ward of the state
and people will
 
forever feed 
and bathe him for
the minimum wage
 
a sum he always said
folks like these 
were worth.
 

                    Jimmy from across the Street
 
I take my wife to dinner
at a fancy place for us
to talk about money
because stocks have a virus
and we should move 
money into silver and gold
in case we don’t die before 
that rainy day comes
 
but first she asks 
did I hear about Jimmy 
from across the street
and I say he’s out of work
two months or more 
and she says his wife’s 
lost her job too and they
have kids in private school
shouldn’t we do something
 
and I ask what can we do
because Jimmy would never
take any help and she says 
we could put cash in an  
envelope in his mailbox
at night and he wouldn’t 
know who to blame  
 
just as something gross 
on the half shell arrives
at our table with sauces 
and I drop the whole idea 
of talking about money 
we’re lucky enough to have. 
Stocks go up and go down
and jobs are lost and found.
We talk about Jimmy
from across the street
the rest of the night.


                             A Life Without Guard Rails
 
You think you got problems?
You probably do but would 
you trade with Phillip,
a Vietnam vet who still thinks 
Agent Orange lurks in 
every puddle he steps 
around after a heavy rain,
who shovels snow, 
cuts lawns and rakes leaves
to make his disability  
check go further?
 
He has a snow shovel
but someone stole his mower
and the grass is growing
and customers are waiting.
He saved three months
to buy a used car to replace
the van that died and that car 
died yesterday in the street but 
the payments are still due.
 
Some people think Phillip  
causes his own problems 
but no one has the answer 
as to how he can change 
a life that hasn't changed 
much since Vietnam.
 
It took ten years 
to qualify for disability.
He’s been doing odd jobs
and he’ll keep doing them 
until he can no longer walk.
He says a Veterans Home
has promised to take him in.