Donal Mahoney- Three Poems

All the Planets around Me

Tonight I can’t sleep

so I ponder the universe

and all the planets around me

swirling in syncopation

with me on one of them

unable to sleep

under the moon and the stars.

I do an address search for 

the First Church of the Big Bang.

I want to join that Church

but I can’t find its location

so I place an ad in the paper

asking its pastor to tell me

where the Church is.

What a sap I am.

Bison and Quail

I never think about bison.

After all, I live in St. Louis,

why should I?

But when I went hunting

for quail in Montana

I tripped and

broke my leg, flopped

on the tundra all night.

Come morning 

I saw bison romping

toward me, hundreds of them

coming in thunder.

I heard them snorting.

Honestly, I’m not lying.

I thought about bison then.

I never think about ISIS, either.

I live in St. Louis, after all,

why should I?

Acronyms Can Matter

A friend in England rings me up

and we talk about this and that.

He asks if my president's in touch

with all that’s going on and I say 

he should be in touch, going to 

Havana, London, Brussels 

and Berlin, giving speeches 

over there but not so many here

unless Congress isn’t in session.

But just the other day I heard him

talking to a reporter and he used 

the term “ISIL” again, not ISIS.

“ISIL" has to do with history

but not many folks understand.

The president prefers ISIL to ISIS

for reasons people no longer debate.

You don’t hear “ISIL” often now 

except from those who work for him.

Even the media who love the man 

switched to ISIS long ago.

Donal Mahoney

----------------------------------

Donal Mahoney, an expatriate from Chicago, lives in St. Louis, Missouri. Some of his earliest work can be found at http://booksonblog12.blogspot.com/ and some of his newer work at http://eyeonlifemag.com/the-poetry-locksmith/donal-mahoney-poet.html#sthash.OSYzpgmQ.gpbT6XZy.dpbs