Donal Mahoney- A Poem

The Corner of Wells and Madison

 

I know that if I ever

fall in the street

the way that man did,

in the middle of an intersection,

someone will mind.

But if unlike that man

I make it

to the other side,

scale the curb and

mount the sidewalk

and then fall,

no one will have to

drive around me.

There will be no extra noise.

There will be only the usual honking.

People walking by

will have to watch their step, true.

But this is Chicago:

No one can blame me for that.

 

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Donal Mahoney spent most of his life living and working in Chicago.

Many a morning and evening he stood at the corner of Wells and Madison, the last intersection he had to navigate going to or coming from work. On a good day, he can still here the symphony of car horns and the cabbies yelling at pedestrians.