Donal Mahoney- Three Poems

 

Playing God

Want to know how

God may feel at times 

about us mortals?

Then every dawn

in any weather

place a tin 

of Fancy Feast

on the deck

for the feral cat

behind the oak

who won’t come out

till you go back inside.

Then take a peek

and watch old Tom 

come up the steps

and eat his fill 

before rumbling off

to find a harlot or a saint

to accept his genes

before he comes back

to feed again at dawn.

You may be a deity to Tom

but you will never get

one meow of worship. 

Ferguson Will Roll

Ferguson will roll

until we turn 

the volume down 

and have no need to seek

concussions in the street.

Now we joust 

to prove that black 

and white are different.

The twain must meet 

for years in bed until

so many cocoa

are conceived we 

drop our weapons

and no longer seek 

concussions in the street.

Midnight Conversation in a Bar

The dapper young man tells

the homeless man one stool over,

After I get my law degree,

I’ll get an MBA and go to Wall Street 

and make a million before I’m thirty.

And after that?

the homeless man asks,

sipping the longneck

the young man has bought him.

I’ll start a business,

says the young man,

and make another million

by the time I’m forty,

buy a nice house in the country,

then franchise the business

so my kids can earn 

as much money as I will.

You want your kids to do well.

Otherwise, why have them?

They cost money.

And after that?

the homeless man asks,

almost finished with his beer.

I’ll retire and buy condos

in Paris and London,

go on safari to Africa, 

buy gold against inflation.

Once I retire I want to have fun. 

And after that?

the homeless man asks,

lighting another cigarette

the young man has given him.

I’ll die when I get old

unless they invent something

that stops death, maybe a drug.

I’ll arrange my funeral

in advance, some big church, 

don’t care which one

as long as they have a choir

to keep the wife happy.

And I’ll hire a good lawyer

to handle the estate.

Don’t want Uncle Sam

getting rich off me.

And after that?

the homeless man asks,

looking for another drink.

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Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.