An Old Poet Shares A Secret Poem by Donal Mahoney

The editor of the school paper
came at the appointed hour
and found the old poet

in his backyard alert
in a lawn chair with a
butterfly net on his lap.

She opened her iPad,
conducted her interview
and asked him at the end

where poems come from.
The old poet said he didn't know.
That's why he has his butterfly net.

If a poem floats by he uses his net
to lift if carefully out of the air,
take it in the house and pin it

to the wall with his name under it.
When his wall's covered with poems
he calls his publisher who comes

and takes the poems away.
In six months the old poet says
he has another book on Amazon.