Collateral Damage
For the entire office
a death like his
coming as it has
the day before
Thanksgiving
complicates the holiday
for everyone. It makes
things difficult
for all: the wake
the other matters.
Cockfight at the Bus Stop
As the snow swirls around them,
one old man in a wheelchair
uses sign language to tell
another old man standing
at the bus stop, "Friend,
you creak when you walk."
Neither one can hear any better
than when they were classmates
at a school for the deaf eons ago.
They learned to sign by writing
in the air with fingers honed
on the whetstone of banter.
Amiable as ever, the creaky man
counters with fingers quicker than
beaks in a Tijuana cockfight.
"Amigo, how can you tell
that I creak when I walk?
Do my knees sign that well?"
Chauvinist's Manifesto
There's a football field between us.
I'm in one of the end zones bellowing
and you're in the other one bawling,
the cliffs of your cheekbones
streaked with mascara.
Betty Friedan is screaming.
She says the problem is my fault.
Bella Abzug is cackling
that she agrees.
Gloria Steinem
is at the microphone,
ready to sentence me
to decades of marriage
with children by the score
though she didn't marry till 60.
These ladies must be right.
I'm just a man so I give up.
I accept all the blame.
Mountains have risen
in the middle of the field.
I can no longer see you.
And if I can't see you
there's no reason for us
to get together again.
I have to be able to see you.
It's always been your hind
and never your mind
that I favored.
We were having a wonderful time
and all of a sudden you got serious
like all the others.
They wanted to get married, too.
Listen up.
I'm going to announce
the best solution.
I want to be generous.
I hope you can hear me:
"You keep the ring.
I'll punt and go home."
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Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.
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