Donal Mahoney Poems

The woman,81, is sightless.
She receives a blind
pension check from Missouri
and has for 60 years.
...

Willie McKee works
second shift
gets home at midnight
makes hot cocoa
...

Tonight we offer the new Janis Joplin
a black girl in white skin who growls
every melancholy note and is
...

A bright winter day
and not a leaf left
on this skeleton
...

Raining outside,
and the boy in short pants
swings a broom.
...

Middle of the night he flies out of bed
to the commode only to wonder
in the dim light minutes later
if that's blood or simply a good-bye
...

Thomas said
you can't go home again
but I did for my sister
and the christening of her first.
...

after Baghdad


On the table by the window
...

Ever since Ambrose was a kid, people have been quoting the Bible to him in an effort to get him to modify his behavior.

In third grade he was on top of another kid in the playground and pounding his head off the asphalt for some infraction or other when a teacher tore him off and reminded him that the Bible said to turn the other cheek and to love one's enemies.
...

One by one
each brick falls.
No mason now
can fix the wall.
...