Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Donal Mahoney- Three Poems


Two Servers, One Human

Henry Deck gets up at three 
to double-check the facts in
a long presentation written 

days and nights this weekend.
Coffee in hand, he stumbles
to the computer, hits the button, 

the screen lights up and he expects 
the Google genie to appear but 
sees instead this blaring message

“You are not connected to this server!
as though the missing genie is his fault
at 3 a.m. and not the server’s.  

It wasn’t the server's fault either  
when he took his wife to dinner and his 
waving never connected with their server, 

a Hercule Poirot who strolled to other tables
uncorking fine wines and offering whiffs to folks 
more hoity-toity than Henry Deck and his wife.

On the bill Henry saw a message presaging
the one on his computer screen this morning: 
gratuity added despite another failure to connect.



Preacher from Outer Space

If one is far away
and suddenly out of touch,
one should pass along

forwarding information
to anyone who needs to know. 
And that’s everyone, by gosh, 

especially if you happen to be 
a renowned televangelist 
retired from TV now in 

Outer Space offering 
advice on YouTube with 
counseling by email

at no extra cost to those
who visit PayPal first.
The cost is very low 

cheaper than flying to Haiti
to ask a voodoo priest 
holding a doll and needle.



The Keepers

The billionaire would send 11 million back
across the border but not the four perhaps 
who on this searing summer day

climb to the top of our house and creep 
like spiders in a hurry, ripping off 
our old roof and putting on a new one 

singing joyful songs of their homeland.
The billionaire would find few Yanks  
willing to go up there for the money

to swing a claw and hammer in the heat
day after day and work so hard so well.
These four, and thousands more, are keepers.


—————————————————
Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.
 
 

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