Donal Mahoney Poems

Two doves on a telephone wire
wait tor the blue jays to finish eating
bread put out for the birds.
...

They had things in common, Paul and June, at an age when most boys and girls don't and maybe that's why they were the only couple in sixth grade dating, if you can call it that. This was the early Fifties when dating didn't begin until senior year of high school, if then, and that was because you had to find someone to go with to the senior prom.

Back then, maybe two families on the block had a black and white TV. Arthur Godfrey played his ukulele on his show and Bishop Sheen had a show almost as popular as Arthur Godfrey, only the bishop always talked about matters involving Heaven and Hell. Nevertheless, people watched Bishop Sheen and one year he had more viewers than Milton Berle.
...

Jimmy was visiting
his father when Mr. Crenshaw
called to say Mrs. Bittles
had died the night before
...

Grandpa has a grandson he hopes
will win a scholarship to meet
the high cost of college.
...

After he died on a tree, he rose
and told the twelve
before he ascended
he would return some day.
...

Please tell me
if I'm right about what
you just told me.
...

It was nearly midnight and I was driving home after a long day when I realized there was no cat food in the house and I would be facing the same trio of feral cats bright and early at the back door that I face every morning, hungrier than ever.

The cats are fond of my wife but I'm the one who feeds them because I get up so early. So I stopped at the all-night mega-grocery store and headed for the pet food section.
...

Bill would come every Sunday to his mother's house after a tough divorce. He'd bring his laundry for his mother to do and then he'd devour the roast beef dinner she always made for him. Afterward, he would watch martial arts on TV. He didn't talk much but Beverly was happy every minute he was there. She was lonely the rest of the week. She could hardly wait for Sunday to come.

Beverly is 83 and buying that roast every week took a chomp out of her pension check. But as she has told herself many times, Bill is 52 and has child support to pay and payments on his new condo.
...

You love your grandson,
this blue bundle in your arms.
There's no doubt about that.
...

Two men running for office
disagree about everything
but have one thing in common.
They won't release
...