Thursday, November 13, 2014

Donal Mahoney- Three Poems

 
Playing God

Want to know how
God may feel at times 
about us mortals?

Then every dawn
in any weather
place a tin 

of Fancy Feast
on the deck
for the feral cat

behind the oak
who won’t come out
till you go back inside.

Then take a peek
and watch old Tom 
come up the steps

and eat his fill 
before rumbling off
to find a harlot or a saint

to accept his genes
before he comes back
to feed again at dawn.

You may be a deity to Tom
but you will never get
one meow of worship. 



Ferguson Will Roll

Ferguson will roll
until we turn 
the volume down 
and have no need to seek
concussions in the street.

Now we joust 
to prove that black 
and white are different.
The twain must meet 
for years in bed until

so many cocoa
are conceived we 
drop our weapons
and no longer seek 
concussions in the street.



Midnight Conversation in a Bar

The dapper young man tells
the homeless man one stool over,
After I get my law degree,
I’ll get an MBA and go to Wall Street 
and make a million before I’m thirty.

And after that?
the homeless man asks,
sipping the longneck
the young man has bought him.

I’ll start a business,
says the young man,
and make another million
by the time I’m forty,
buy a nice house in the country,
then franchise the business
so my kids can earn 
as much money as I will.
You want your kids to do well.
Otherwise, why have them?
They cost money.

And after that?
the homeless man asks,
almost finished with his beer.

I’ll retire and buy condos
in Paris and London,
go on safari to Africa, 
buy gold against inflation.
Once I retire I want to have fun. 

And after that?
the homeless man asks,
lighting another cigarette
the young man has given him.

I’ll die when I get old
unless they invent something
that stops death, maybe a drug.
I’ll arrange my funeral
in advance, some big church, 
don’t care which one
as long as they have a choir
to keep the wife happy.
And I’ll hire a good lawyer
to handle the estate.
Don’t want Uncle Sam
getting rich off me.

And after that?
the homeless man asks,
looking for another drink.


———————————————
Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

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