Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Donal Mahoney- Three Poems


Leprechauns in Pop's Fedora

For years leprechauns lived 
under Pop’s fedora.
They danced jigs on his head
when he wore it

and hid in his ears
when he took it off
to scratch his head 
then jumped back up 

to dance a few reels
when he took it off 
for another good scratch.
Leprechauns dancing 

confused my mother.
She thought Pops
had ringworm or lice
and should see a doctor.

The attendant said no 
ringworm or lice but said 
Pop might look odd 
wearing a hat in his coffin.



Thoughts While Waiting in the ER

You thought you knew her.
She thought she knew you.

Neither was true
but this happens at times

at Happy Hour on Fridays
after a long week of work.

The rapport was strong.
Amazing, you thought.

She might be someone
you’d see more than once.

She had a nice apartment
or maybe it was a condo

a big double bed
with a canopy yet.

You slept soundly until
the key in the door

and from the other pillow
you heard a whisper,

“He’s not expected
until late next week.



In the Mood

We're going dancing, my wife and I, 
to a Charity Ball high in the sky where
Glenn Miller's band has been playing 
since 1944, the year his plane got lost 
over the English Channel.
No wreckage was ever found,
not a single body.
Glenn Miller was going to France 
to play for American troops 
during World War II.
Government records say 
he's still "missing in action."

Maybe so, but I hate to go dancing, 
even with music by Glenn Miller.
So I told my wife I'll go if she
can find a dress as red
as the one she wore in 1956 
when Father Hennessy said,  
"This is a prom. Not burlesque."
A slip of a girl back then,
she made things worse 
with black seamed nylons.
All the rage back then, the nylons  
disturbed the padre.

But if my wife can find a bright red dress
and a pair of black seamed nylons,
I'll wear the old seersucker suit
I bought at Macy's for the prom. 
It goes real well with the "duck tie"
I found "on sale" for 50 cents  
at the Army Surplus store.
Father Hennessy loved that tie.
Even now I can hear him bellow,
"That tie's so wide the ducks 
will fly for 50 years to cross it."
How prescient the padre was. 


 
Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri. 

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