Donal Mahoney- A Poem

Songwriter's Nightmare

Where did it go?

I really don't know.

I lost it weeks ago

in the middle of the night.

Too tired to get up.

Said I'd take care of it

first thing in the morning.

Didn't want to wake the wife.

Now it's lost in the ether

with some others, gone forever.

They never come back.

I feel like the blind man

in the yard next door

trying to find the red ball 

his guide dog failed to fetch.

How does he know it was red?

Or the lothario memorialized

in the paper this morning

for crawling out the window

when his lover's husband 

caught an early plane home.

Left his pants and wallet behind.

Some things never come back,

sometimes for the better

but not this time.

The next time I wake up

in the middle of the night

and hear the band playing

a new song in my head

I'll get up, believe me,

and write everything down.

It might be another 

"Moonlight in Vermont."

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Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.