Donal Mahoney- A Poem

High School in the Fifties

In my all-boys school

sixty years ago there were 

two boys who were different.

All four years they walked  

to classes together, books 

clasped to their chests 

the way girls walked home 

carrying theirs.

I never saw another

classmate talk to them, 

perhaps because like me 

they didn’t know what to say

or they had nothing to say.

But I never heard anyone

talk about them either.

It was as if they weren’t there.

Now 60 years later 

the school sends out 

alumni updates and lists

the two of them as missing 

and asks if anyone might 

know where they are. 

I doubt that anyone does.

We didn’t know where 

they were back then.

Donal Mahoney 

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Donal Mahoney attended a Roman Catholic boys-only 

high school in the early fifties. The Orlando massacre

reminded him of two apparently gay classmates from

six decades ago. There were probably other gays in 

the school as well who did not fit the same stereotype. 

These two classmates were never picked on to his 

knowledge and they were not shunned, either. He feels 

to this day straight kids at that time simply did not know 

how to communicate with them nor had any interest

in doing so just as there were some straight kids who

did not “fit in” as well. There was no bullying because 

neither the administration nor the students would have 

tolerated that kind of behavior. If you wanted to heckle 

someone, he had to appear to be your equal physically. 

It was not a good time for anyone who was different but 

maybe just little better than today.