Donal Mahoney- Three Poems

A Matter of Perspective

Feeding feral cats at dawn

is easier when the cats are calm.

This can happen when the 

mix of cats remains the same 

but a new cat can create

commotion for a sleepy man.

But feeding cats is easier 

for a man with grown children 

who have moved around the nation 

and communicate by Skype  

and bicker as they did when 

the four of them were 

a year apart in school.

Today the problem isn’t 

who’s the better athlete or

gets the highest grades 

or will become a millionaire.

Today the problem is the one 

terminal with cancer.

Mushroom Hunting 

You can learn a lot 

mushroom hunting 

with a gnome.

The gnome I hunt 

with always has 

a lot to say. 

On this hunt he says 

life is what we do 

until we die.

Then we find out

if we did it well.

Takes about a minute.

If we did it well

it’s blue sky and

we soar with angels

and if we failed

we’re marshmallows

turning slowly

over an open fire.

Takes forever.

We never melt.

Cart Boy

This megastore is a paradise of food.

It’s open all night, its parking lot lit 

like a stadium in Texas on a football 

Friday night but now at midnight 

the lot is almost free of cars but 

shopping carts are everywhere 

like sheep waiting for a shepherd 

who arrives at dawn, a young man

in a store jacket and store cap, 

white shirt, store logo on his tie.

His badge says “Darius 3 Years."

He begins to gather his carts 

in a long train to push them, 

as the caboose, back to the store. 

His energy surpasses any clerk 

I’ve seen work inside at any hour.

Soon more customers arrive 

and more carts are rolling around

and Cart Boy, as Darius is called 

by coworkers, doesn't stop 

going after them until a staffer 

taps him on the arm for lunch.

One day I see the manager

in the lot watching Darius 

with admiration and I ask him 

why he doesn’t train him for

stocking shelves or cutting meat. 

The manager offers a wan smile 

and gives me another lesson in life. 

“Darius,” he says, “is Special Needs.”

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Donal Mahoney wrote “Cart Boy” shortly after talking with the store manager in the parking lot of the megastore. Darius is not his real name.