Sunday, March 30, 2014

Donal Mahoney- Three Poems

Plagiarism

I'd never steal a poem 
or any of its shining facets 
but I'd take the mood 

a poem is born in 
if the poem is smiling. 
A lot of poems smile

but lately mine 
can only scowl.
So when I read
 
a poem written  
in the daylight by 
a soul who's 

painting clouds 
against a brilliant sky
as if the clouds 

were butterflies
too lovely to let go
and fly away,

that's the mood 
I want with me 
every midnight 

in the basement
when I feed the ghosts 
I can't allow upstairs.



When Men Had to Marry

In 1956 April told Henry
her mother had told her
there's a time and a place
for that and the time 

for that was certainly 
not now but soon  
after the ceremony
after the reception 

on their honeymoon
at Niagara Falls.
April hoped Henry
would like it for she 

would be his as long 
as his freckles  
danced the cha-cha
all over his nose.



After Listening to World News Tonight

When the next emperor dies 
and arrives in Hades 
there will be great applause 

from the other emperors who  
arrived there before him. 
They will drop pitchforks, 

kneel in bonfire and bow 
to their newest colleague, 
the one for whom Satan 

now rises and offers 
his throne so the new man 
can reign in glory as 

Emperor of Hades until 
someone more evil arrives, 
someone whose glee for war 

harmed even more people, 
people with little to lose 
except for their lives.



Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

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