The Parish Carnival
That's Bernie's wife on the carousel
laughing and waving her arms.
Once again she won't get off
even though Bernie is yelling
next to the concession stand
jumping around in his wheel chair.
He's finished his cotton candy
and wants to go home.
He probably has to pee.
He never goes anywhere
except to the parish carnival.
He loves the cotton candy.
He says it's the same as when
he was a kid years ago
before he fell out of the tree.
He needs Stella more than ever now
to push his wheel chair and she does
except when she comes to the carnival
and gives old Bernie a big plume
of cotton candy and hops on the carousel
laughing and waving her arms
once a summer every year.
Old Drunk's Advice to an Anxious Beau
I’m no expert on marriage
but you asked me so
here’s how I see it,
decades removed from
making the same decision.
If the woman is pretty,
has a voice you want to
bathe in forever, she
may be the right one.
But at my age or yours
I would marry only
a woman who made me
grunt at the zenith.
If she did that,
I’d buy the ring.
Waiting for Peter
If I hadn’t died, I’d still
be bouncing along
in that Greyhound bus
through the mountains
swigging a Coke.
Don’t mind being dead but
dying almost killed me.
When the bus hit the boulder
I flew out the window
and was tossed in the air.
My head hit the rocks.
No one survived.
They found us later
covered with snow.
But it’s nice up here
on a cloud waiting
with the others now.
We wonder what’s next.
Moments ago an angel
landed and said Peter
would soon be here.
Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.
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