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 Coffee with Mr. Conscience There are a lot of people like me neither rich nor poor, idling in the middle who have never wanted for anything in our lives. We were reared by parents who fed us and sent us to school. We graduated and found jobs and then moved on to better ones. We raised families of our own. We have pensions now and can pay our bills. We can buy a new recliner when the old one breaks. Which is why I hate to stop for coffee at Pete’s Diner and find Mr. Conscience there sipping his and waiting to ask me what I’ve done for the poor lately. He’s an old caseworker who worked in the projects until retirement. He volunteers now with a group that caulks the gaps public grants don't cover. He never gives me a moment’s peace, always after me to help a needy person. He’ll take cash or a check, isn't fussy. He’s Mr. Conscience and he drives me nuts. But I wouldn't have coffee with anyone else after watching the inauguration. A Question for Dylann Roof Dylann Roof defended himself in the sentencing phase of his trial after he was convicted of killing nine people during a Bible study, the nine people who welcomed him after he walked into their church. Had I been the judge I would have asked Mr. Roof to approach the bench for a private consultation and I’d have said the court knows you’re sane because you were certified to stand trial and you have said insanity is not the reason you killed these people. You said it had to be done and you did it. Mr. Roof, are you possessed? An Askew Life On a clear day in the day room he will tell anyone he has had an askew life. When he was a small boy out for a Sunday walk with his parents his father would shout not to walk on the edge of the sidewalk and in grammar school the nuns would get upset because he didn’t always write between the lines and at jobs after college despite doing things well and getting promotions he had a habit of being late and in a long otherwise satisfactory marriage his wife would get upset because he didn't put stamps on envelopes straight. On a bad day in the day room he will tell anyone none of those people is still alive. Mourning a Child at Midnight Some choose not to have children others maybe one or two three seems to be the max now it’s not like when Paul was young and a family might have had six or more the wife at home, the husband working. Families were big back then. Now families are considered big when a couple has more than three. Years ago Paul and Faye had five but after she took that midnight call and learned they had lost a daughter Faye cried for awhile and then hugged Paul and whispered why didn’t we have seven. A Visit to Charlie’s Diner A corner sentinel for 40 years, Charlie’s Diner is the only landmark in a neighborhood of blue-collar people who love their burgers thick and juicy along with fries and a giant pickle. Nina has managed Charlie's for 30 years and says customers never complain. Prices go up when costs go up and customers understand but they like to moan because it's the fashionable thing to do. I ask Nina about Charlie, for whom the diner is named. She says she never met him but folks still come in and say Charlie said to feed them and to put it on the cuff. They’ll pay the bill later. She laughs and tells them Charlie hasn’t told her that yet. And it’s no wonder, Nina says. Charlie died 40 years ago, the week the diner opened. He was a quiet mynah bird, never said a word.
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