Donal Mahoney- Three Poems

Dancing in the Candy Aisle at 6 a.m.

A boy, maybe 5, dancing 

in the candy aisle of a megastore

at 6 a.m., a month before Halloween

is overjoyed by the harvest 

on every shelf, his caramel skin 

aglow, his hair a perfect 'fro, 

his black t-shirt and black jeans 

the right outfit for his performance.

And although he has the moves 

he’s more a cub scout than 

another Michael Jackson.

He has the aisle to himself 

except for me and my cart

at one end and a clerk 

with a box at the other 

both of us stunned to see

a boy with no arms dancing 

in the candy aisle till mother 

comes and scoops him up, 

plops him in her empty cart. 

Both laugh and disappear.

Not at All like Life

Bathroom faucet

has a slow drip.

I can barely see it.

Shorter wife sees it,

wants it fixed now.

I try hard but can’t do it.

Plumber comes,

says it can’t be fixed.

He has a new faucet

and it costs a lot.

Wife wants new faucet.

I say just a minute.

Isn’t old faucet 

just like life?

Why not let it drip.

An hour later 

we have a new faucet.

Not at all like life.

Aunt Bea in the Old Folks Home

Aunt Bea is 102 so who am I

to contradict her when she 

calls Shady Acres

the Old Folks Home

when I visit her once a week 

and bring a hot fudge sundae

which she has trouble eating now. 

It used to disappear in minutes 

with her licking the plastic spoon.

She says they moved her to 

this other floor and won’t let her

get out of bed, and although 

the nurse told me what 

prompted the move, I ask 

Aunt Bea why they did it

and she says it’s because 

she told Doctor Kuffman

about the bad nurses 

and the water problem.

Whenever she asks for

a glass of water, she says, 

the nurses take her out back

and put her in the bucket

back on her father’s farm

and lower her into the well

and tell her to get her own

water and to holler when she’s 

had enough and they’ll

pull her back up.

But they never do it right

and she’s always thirsty, 

Aunt Bea says, and she’s 

damn tired of the nurse 

who hollers down "how we 

doin' down there, Sweetie"

and then taking an hour 

to pull her back up and 

she still has no water 

because the three of them 

in their fancy uniforms 

never give her a glass.

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Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.