Monday, July 21, 2014

Donal Mahoney- Three Poems

Two Flying Saucers

A flying saucer whirrs 
through the kitchen air
almost hits him in the head

flies out the open window
followed by another saucer
sailed at him by her 

angry that he's earthbound
can't take her to the moon
one more time tonight.

He's getting old, he tells her.
She should have come aboard
when he was 23 and flew

all night from star to star.
He ducks again and gasps,
"Once must now suffice."



No Bigger than a Pepper Flake

I could kill him but I won't. 
This tiny spider 
no bigger than a pepper flake

has spun a web so fine
I can't see the strands 
falling from a hook

near the basin where I shave.
He appears to levitate.
I could kill him but I won't.

He will be an inconvenience 
for my wife when she spots him 
but not an inconvenience

like the fetus in the womb 
of my daughter's friend next door.
She goes back to school this week. 



Both Sides Now 

I told my wife today
I won't leave the house again
except to feed feral cats that gather 

on our patio at dawn
to yowl for grub and water.
Otherwise I'll stay home except 

to go to church on Sunday.
At the very least I want to say hello.
The day I die, however, I'll go right

to Feldmann's Funeral Home.
I'll need a lift, of course, but 
I paid Feldmann's long ago 

to wake me on my stomach, 
pants pulled down around my knees 
so folks can read my new tattoos, 

one ablaze on each buttock,
easy to read in red calligraphy.
The left one screams "Kiss this" 

and the right one shouts "Or this."
I'm pro-choice, I guess, 
when it comes to this.


Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

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