Donal Mahoney Poems

From her side of the bed
the wife suggests he get dressed,
go out in the night and
purchase a piece. She's
...

Somewhere in California
a midnight one-eyed bus shoots

lettuce farm past lettuce farm
...

Some days you think the cat will stay till summer comes,
this Prodigal Son you've fed for years, this feral cat
who comes and goes and comes again when hunger strikes.
But he just eats and leaves your porch,
...

Warm, wet, wrapped
in each other's
arms, legs,
still for a moment,
...

For Martha in the early years
life was recess, nothing more.
She knelt on asphalt,
quartered oranges for kittens
...

Thumping off my eye
I find the fist to be
less important
than the blur
...

The way I walk these days the tips
of my soles and the edge of my heels
wear out too fast for a man with children.
...

A dream wrought by curry

Somewhere in Mumbai
great fans whir against the ceiling

as the old madam reigns
...

I was there the day
there trickled down the wall
of an old man's room one roach

that stopped across
...

The others, of course,
are more rabid than he
but less apt to show it.
Whenever he strikes,
...