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)

---

                                    Small Backyard

 
It’s a small backyard
I’ve watched for years
from an upstairs window
while chained to a computer.
Whatever the weather
 
the old widow was always 
planting in spring
watering in summer
raking in fall
shoveling in winter
 
but the yard’s quiet now
the only traffic 
a resident squirrel
heading for the oak
over the tall grass 
the widow’s heir 
has stopped mowing.
 
She told her son
you don’t have to garden 
but please mow the grass
rake the leaves and 
shovel the snow
or I’ll shake you
at midnight 
the rest of your life. 
 
 
  
                             A Third World Life
 
When he was just a boy,
they took him to the dump
to scavenge, bits of metal,
any food that might be eaten.
 
When he became a man,
young and handsome,
every day he would go 
to the dump and scavenge.
 
When he was middle-aged,
other men followed him
after he discovered a bigger,
better dump to scavenge.
 
Now old and blind, he sits
in his hut while seven
children and their children
go to the dump and scavenge.
 
 
 
 
                                     Small Shoulders
 

She speaks the truth
as she always has
in 40 years of marriage
 
especially when she’s 
lost in making dinner
this time though 
 
she has to wash 
blood from the paring knife
before she peels 
 
the last of the potatoes.
Until the knife went in
he didn’t think in 40 years
 
she had noticed that 
for a man his size he   
has small shoulders.
 
 
 
 
                                      Reprobate in Recovery
 

If you’re a reprobate in recovery
you have to be careful what you do. 
You’re no different than an alcoholic,
always in danger of falling again.
 
At least an alcoholic has a disease
but not every reprobate is sick.
Some are genetically louses.
They love what they do.
 
If you’re a reprobate in recovery
it’s understandable to think
you might be safe in church.
 
Lots of good people go to church. 
But reprobates go there too.
Some may be worse than you. 
 
The next time you go to church,
even if it’s your first time, remember 
this old saying, recently refreshed:
 
A church is a hospital for sinners 
not a resort for saints.
 
When you go to church, 
a reprobate might  
hand you a bulletin, 
pass the basket, nod off 
in the pew next to you or 
bellow from the pulpit. 
 
So watch for a reprobate
to join the mix after 
a Sunday service
during fellowship with 
coffee and donuts.
If you can't spot one, 
a selfie may do.  
 
 
 
                                      Odd and Strange
 
​
The day Paul got married, 
his old girlfriend called his house 
just before he and his bride Anne
 
caught the plane for their honeymoon. 
Paul was outside packing the car 
and Anne answered the phone. 
 
His old girlfriend was angry because 
Paul had married somebody else so she  
told Anne strange things Paul liked to do,
 
strange things Anne had never heard of,
stuff that didn’t sound like Paul at all, 
but Anne said nothing about the call
 
and they flew off to a nice honeymoon, 
diving off cliffs and swimming in the sea, 
seeing rare birds and tropical flowers, 
 
eating native foods Anne hadn't heard of.
Years later, they went back to Oahu 
for their 40th anniversary, and Anne
 
told Paul about the call but didn’t say 
anything about what the girl had said 
although she remembered every word.
 
They were sipping drinks at a cafe 
when Paul admitted he remembered 
the girl because she would ask him to do 
 
things he thought odd and strange.
He was open-minded but there’s a limit. 
Anne said she understood because after 
 
40 years with Paul, she now liked to do 
things she thought odd and strange when 
she left the Amish for something new.