Donal Mahoney Poems

Look so pretty you
no sound floats
out of my mouth

as I sit silent now
...

They had to operate
remove the one
and from the other
take a nugget.
...

County Kerry, Ireland

Twig fire limn
eight fairy
...

for Gerard Manley Hopkins

Around his navel this morning
a halo, a red stipple
...

Her lips?
As I recall,
even when she talked
her lips were slung
...

Waterbugs scurry
when the light snaps on
at midnight in the bathroom
the way this woman's eyes
...

When my wife is in her garden,
she becomes a ballerina
moving with the morning breeze
through hollyhocks and roses,
...

Outside, the still
of crickets.
Inside, petals
of a cold sore
...

Unlike his peers
his office holds
no photo of a wife
no indication that he has
...

It is not the position,
not the money,
not the opportunity.
It is breakfast
...