Saturday, August 17, 2013

Donal Mahoney- Three Poems

Bachelor's Song

When will you understand
it's all about me.
The world we live in

whirls around my axis.
Once you understand 
I am the Sun

we can get married.
Until that happens,
step aside while I 

hunt for the one 
who truly understands
it's all about me,

the one who knows
the world we live in
whirls around my axis.

She must be pretty.
That's how I see it.
Take it from me.



Firstborn

Born at the foot 
of the mountain
what will you do?

You have time to decide 
but some die young.
Others live but remain

at the foot of the mountain
where wind like snow
blows them around.

So what will you do?
Go 'round the mountain?
Fly over the mountain?

Or climb the mountain,
hand over hand, 
with fingers and toes

tucked in clefts,
stopping only for water,
then going on.

Millions are now
on the side 
of the mountain

halfway up
with grappling hooks
and the finest gear.

So what will you do?
Parents can pray but 
God only knows.
 


Postpartum Depression

A wound like that
doesn't leave a scar
because it never heals.

Fifty years ago 
the doctors didn't
have a name for it 

but that's no help
to Jimmy now.
Ginny's dead

and their six kids 
have children of their own,
some of them in college.

The doctors know 
how to treat it now.
They tell mothers

what to watch for
after giving birth.
They tell fathers, too,

but that's no help 
to Jimmy
in his wheel chair 

sitting in the lobby 
of the nursing home
watching silent 

movies of his life 
flicker through his mind.
A rerun every day.

He can't even 
speak about it
since the stroke.  

A wound like that
doesn't leave a scar
because it never heals.



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Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

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