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.
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