Donal Mahoney Poems

Homeless man
in a Trayvon hoodie
under an old raincoat,
a gift today from
...

This year Teddy phoned me
from who knows where
instead of one of our siblings.
This year I'm the honoree
...

The lack of visitors is uterine
and that is why you porcupine
in this dark corner. Here
...

You go to the doctor
at 21, no problems.
Maybe a flu shot.
That's it.
...

All the rest are dead
except for Joe and Ed,
both ill and long retired.
...

It was their wedding night and Priya didn’t want to tell her new husband all about it but Bill kept asking where she had learned to walk like that. Finally she told him it was inherited from a previous life, a life she had lived many years ago in India, not far from Bangalore. She had been a cobra kept in a charmer’s basket.

When the charmer found a customer, usually a Brit or Yank, he would play his flute and Priya would uncoil and rise from the basket. Her hood would swell and she would sway as long as the customer had enough money to keep paying the charmer. She never tried to bite a customer but some of the men weren’t the nicest people in the world. You think they would know better than to tease a cobra.
...

I told my guest
it’s just a poem
doesn't mean a thing
...

Let’s not worry about it, Dearie,
life gets better, life gets worse.
We’re no different than
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She speaks the truth
as she always has
in 40 years of marriage
...

There’s nothing else to say.
The problem won’t go away.

It will palpitate until
...