Sunday, March 1, 2015

Donal Mahoney- Three Poems


Snake Charmer 

After 50 years Wilma 
at her class reunion thinks 
Waldo’s changed with age

that he’s nice now, not 
the snake she wed
right after high school

and quietly divorced.
Both are widowed now
and Wilma looks lovely.

Tonight she has Waldo 
swaying to the rhythm 
of her voice but Wilma 

needs to know a cobra
coiled in its basket can
wait to nip its charmer



Her Trip Back There
 
You were gone
before you left.
Now you’re happy 
you're back home.

I can hear
you singing 
in the shower
but I know now

you’re still there.
Make yourself
a cup of coffee.
The kids are still

at school.
They'll be happy
you've come back.
I'll be dozing

in my chair.
We know now
despite your smile
I'm no longer here.



Big Walleye for Emma

Never a man to dawdle 
Gramps got around,
he reminded his Emma, 
until gout told his foot 
to marry his ottoman.

So he paid for a cab
to visit Doc Morton,
a man he hated to see,
then stayed off his foot 
for another two weeks. 

Neighbors came over
and Sally next door 
brought a big apple pie
and a case of the flu. 
Gramps sampled both.

In a matter of days 
he developed pneumonia, 
went to the hospital,
faded away after 
telling his widow-to-be

no reason at all to worry. 
He just had a bit of the flu
Come summer, he’d catch
a mess of big walleye 
only his Emma could fry.

 
 
Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri. 

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