Donal Mahoney Poems

Forget the fall equinox.
Fall arrives when all the moths
that dance on summer nights
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Every time the phone rings
Bill's afraid the caller might say
another childhood classmate has died.
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hillary dillary dock
monica ran up bill's sock
the clock struck three
bill said whee
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I'm not saying my father hated the English, God forbid. If he were still alive, he'd hate to hear me say that. He'd correct me right away and say he didn't hate the English. Truth be told, he despised the English, especially the Black and Tans. They were the troops the English sent to take over Ireland before, during and after the Troubles in 1916. That was the time when the Irish first fought seriously for their independence.

My father would tell me often about what the Black and Tans did to him in 1920 at age 16 when he was captured while running guns for the IRA through marshes in rural Ireland. He knew the marshes in County Kerry very well because he was reared there as a farm boy. The IRA thought a boy like him would never get caught. But a boy carrying guns was not a common sight in the marshes of County Kerry.
...

The editor of the school paper
came at the appointed hour
and found the old poet
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Six months ago
an old black couple
moved into an old brick house
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Rudy in his wheelchair gets around pretty good. He has a good job and transportation via a special van. He shops at local stores and everyone is nice except at the drug store where the clerk seems to have a problem with Rudy.

Rudy has noticed the clerk is always nice to people ahead of him in the check-out line. Rudy may be paralyzed from the waist down but he isn't dumb. Trying to figure out what the clerk's problem is, Rudy has watched him carefully over several visits. He has come to the conclusion that the clerk has a problem with disabled people. That's not an uncommon problem and it can result from various reasons. But Rudy figures that's why the clerk treats him rudely and why he has to wait so long to be checked out.
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Fred and Martha have always voted
the same way since their marriage
long ago but not this time
and Fred wondered why Martha
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I love my wife
and so I licked it lovingly
at the very tip
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Natural Family Planning
has its ups and downs
so to speak but it often
...