Rush Hour, Chicago
Early evening traffic's
rather heavy.
Autos armadillo home
along the Outer Drive
as out of mouths of buildings
people enter mouths
of anything that moves
wherever every evening
they are going. Tonight
they interrupt the passion
of another person’s day,
the crone astride the hydrant
who once again this evening
bows and swoops and curses
as she burlaps broken glass
gives the finger to nice people
propped in autos staring
as she lets the traffic pass.
Donal Mahoney
America Wants to Know
What will she do with him?
That is, if she’s elected.
She’ll have to take him
with her to the White House
after keeping him in the doghouse.
Maybe the FBI can put
the doghouse out on the lawn.
He shouldn’t be a problem there.
Only men jump over the fence.
Donal Mahoney
All I Did Was Admire Her Aloud
“Quiet, please,” I tell her,
“I want to hear the music.”
She is sitting next to me again,
this time on a paisley couch,
a woman in a lime bikini I met
only this morning sprawled
on the Morse Avenue Beach.
All I did was admire her aloud,
not recognize her age, and an hour later
she brought me home with her.
Now she is curling into me again
and moaning at a remarkable pitch.
Finally she spits into my neck
what it’s all about
this time and every time
“Honey…I am…coming."
Donal Mahoney
Sally in the Alley and Joanie in the Weeds
Sarah makes sandwiches all day,
piling meat and trimmings high
on pillowy bread she spreads
apart before her customers' eyes.
Hardworking men love her sandwiches
and sometimes date her after work
but none so far has mentioned marriage.
This confuses Sarah who’s as open
as her bread in satisfying men.
That’s not too wise, says Ethel,
a granny clone Sarah chats with
after lunch-hour rush.
Ethel says when she was Sarah's age
women demanded a wedding first,
except for two legends she remembers:
Sally in the Alley and Joanie in the Weeds
were consumed by many men, Ethel says,
then tossed aside like sandwich wrappers.
Donal Mahoney
Beats Obamacare, He Swears
or bumps his elbow, the pain
is always piercing but
Homer’s a pious man so
swearing isn’t for him.
Instead he screams
"Debbie Wasserman Schultz!"
but that brings no relief.
In fact, the pain gets worse so
he screams "Nancy Pelosi!"
but that’s no help either.
So Homer drops all piety
and releases a loud curse
that makes the pain disappear.
Beats Obamacare, he swears.
Donal Mahoney
