Donal Mahoney- A Poem

One Loves Someone or Doesn't

I came back to You late 

and still don't understand

why the Father asked You to 

die for me and everyone else.

I learned the Ten Commandments

as a child but never learned to love.

I don’t think one learns to love.

One loves someone or doesn’t.

One likes someone or doesn’t.

But there’s a canyon, isn’t there,

between the two--like and love.

I viewed your Father, I’m afraid,

the way I viewed my own. 

My father did his best but he  

was another fallen wretch like me

no different than Adam and Eve.

I have never understood why 

Adam and Eve’s fall from grace

fell on everyone else and me.

Why must everyone pay for what

Adam and Eve did, I’d ask. 

Now I no longer need an answer.

Now I simply need to remember

what I have always known 

yet must wait to understand—

You died on the cross

and rose from the dead

for a wretch like me because

the Father asked You to. 

That’s good enough for me.

Donal Mahoney

——————————————————————————

Donal Mahoney always believed even before a nun

in kindergarten taught him the basics. And now

in his dotage he wonders why he still believes

and so many of his friends and relatives do not. 

If he ever had a doubt, one walk in nature 

would remove it. There’s no Bang Big enough to 

be responsible for all that.