Donal Mahoney- Three Poems

A Few Stops Before Going Home

There are too many nuts with guns,

Willie tells Millie at Starbucks,

as they sip their lattes.

What can be done?

Congress will never 

agree to a solution.

Willie and Millie admit 

they don’t know

what can be done

to stop the massacres

in America.

Willie, a city boy, doesn’t hunt

except for good restaurants

but he’s not opposed to hunters

as long as they eat what they kill. 

Shooting an animal for a trophy 

over the mantel makes no 

sense to Willie or Millie. 

No sport in that. 

But two nights ago two guys 

broke into Ralph’s house

down the street 

and he shot them dead 

with a pistol he bought 

and had never used.

His wife didn’t know

he had a gun in the house.

So now Willie and Millie 

sip their lattes and revisit 

the idea of buying a pistol 

and taking lessons in how 

to shoot the damn thing.

Not welcome at their age.

Willie says no pistol yet

but tells Millie it’s time 

to buy a Wolfhound.

Millie says no pistol

but wants a Mastiff instead.

Then both of them agree 

bullets kill dogs as well.

They head out to the car

to make a few stops

before going home.

What stops they’ll make 

they haven’t decided 

but they both realize

something has to be done. 

Tenement Scene, Havana, 1962

Woman in a window

brushing long hair madly

screams at a little boy

down in the street

licking an ice cream cone

some man gave him

some man she doesn’t know

not the man she’s 

brushing her hair for

who doesn't show up.

The man with the ice cream

may have to do.

Special of the Day

It’s Rocky’s Diner

but it’s Brenda’s counter,

been that way for 10 years.

Brenda has her regulars

who want the Special of the Day.

They know the week is over 

when it’s perch on Friday.

Her drifters don’t care about 

the Special of the Day. 

They want Brenda instead

but she’s made it clear 

she’s not available.

Her regular customers tip well.

Long ago, they gave up

trying to see her after work.

After awhile her drifters go  

to the diner down the street 

to see if the waitress there

is any more hospitable. 

Brenda’s regulars don’t know

she has three kids her mother

watched every day until Brenda 

took a vacation out of town,

then came back and helped her 

mother find a place of her own. 

Now Brenda’s back at the diner,

serving her regulars and 

discouraging her drifters,

while Marsha, her bride,

watches the kids.

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Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.