A Dairy Queen Moment
I love my wife
and so I licked it lovingly
at the very tip
the ice cream cone
she got me when I’d
asked her for a shake.
She smiled and said
that’s the way to do it
as if I didn’t know.
Donal Mahoney
Just Like Yesterday
Fred and Martha have always voted
the same way since their marriage
long ago but not this time
and Fred wondered why Martha
was voting the other way
until the other night
when they listened to the news
and heard women as old as Martha
say they had been molested as a child.
During the commercial Martha told Fred
she too had been molested and she
remembers it just like yesterday.
She had never told Fred before.
He did his best to look stoic but
felt guilty for every man.
Martha explained what happened
that day in the back seat of the Buick
next to her father’s friend from work
when they were all going
to the carnival to ride
the tilt-a-whirl and her father
didn’t see what happened
in the rear-view mirror.
Martha didn’t tell her father.
She was 12, after all,
going to the carnival
to ride the tilt-a-whirl
on her birthday like
her father promised.
She didn’t want to ruin
everybody's day.
Donal Mahoney
An Old Poet Shares a Secret
The editor of the school paper
came at the appointed hour
and found the old poet
in his backyard alert
in a lawn chair with a
butterfly net on his lap.
She opened her iPad,
conducted her interview
and asked him at the end
where poems come from.
The old poet said he didn’t know.
That’s why he has his butterfly net.
If a poem floats by he uses his net
to lift if carefully out of the air,
take it in the house and pin it
to the wall with his name under it.
When his wall’s covered with poems
he calls his publisher who comes
and takes the poems away.
In six months the old poet says
he has another book on Amazon.
Donal Mahoney
A Dappled People Now
Six months ago
an old black couple
moved into an old brick house
on a block of old white people.
A dither erupted over the fences
as neighbors realized there was
nothing they could do now.
So the white folks did nothing
but the black folks did something.
They barbecued on Sundays
in their back yard after church.
Gossip reported they preferred
ribs by the slab but no report
could be made on the side dishes.
Even with binoculars peering
through rickety blinds, old eyes
couldn’t determine the side dishes.
They are a dappled people now.
Donal Mahoney
Recycle Them
We worry so much
because we’re nice people.
We want to find a way
to feed the poor
house the poor
employ the poor.
No wonder some say
nip the problem
in the bud.
Pluck them from the womb.
Sell their parts.
Recycle them.
Donal Mahoney
A Father Must Be Careful
I told my son
now that he’s a father
he has to be careful about
what he says around his child.
No swearing, of course,
but other things as well
are not appropriate to say
in front of a child growing up.
I told him something
I remember from long ago
my father said to me
when I was just a tyke.
I was looking out the window
watching squirrels in spring
romping on the lawn.
My father hated squirrels
because they ate tomatoes
in his garden every summer.
He said to me that day
squirrels are just rats
with the wrong tail.
Donal Mahoney
