Donal Mahoney- Three Poems

 

Norman Doesn't Go to Ferguson, Missouri

Not far from Ferguson aflame

are quiet leafy neighborhoods 

Norman Rockwell might have painted 

when subdivisions first appeared.

These neighborhoods are beautiful

because Norman still comes back

four times a year, some say, 

for touch-up work here and there

during the changing of the seasons.

He paints russets on the leaves in fall, 

crystals on the snow in winter, 

yellow on the daffodils in spring, 

red and pink on roses in the summer.

But Norman doesn't paint in Ferguson  

because Ferguson he says is Watts 

raging down the road to resurrection.

Tom-Toms in the Night

When he walks behind her

so many years his wife

up the staircase laughing

off to bed this night

he can hear the tom-toms

in the jungle of his night

and so he whispers softly 

let's try for twins tonight.

Madman in Remission

Does he remember?

Jenny, how could he forget?

Thirty years ago you roared 

into his office and raged 

about your cousin's

decision to marry him.

He had never met you.

Your cousin had told him 

you were in town 

and suggested he 

take you to lunch,

show you Chicago.

She didn't know 

you were angry. 

You were just Jenny, 

her cousin, her playmate 

from childhood 

down on the farm. 

You didn't want her 

to marry anyone 

and leave you the last 

cousin still single, 

something odd

in those days

when nobody knew.

You mocked him 

and he couldn't respond

with people around.

But, Jenny, 

you could have died 

that day in his office.

Thirty years later, 

he's still a madman 

in remission.

No apology will do. 

Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.