Caseworker Takes Notes
I was there the day
there trickled down the wall
of an old man's room one roach
that stopped across
a canyon in the plaster till
the old man's elevated slipper fell.
The roach absorbed the blow
and as though perforated for
dissolved into an archipelago.
The old man looked at me
and patiently explained, "
constant smacking of its
one roach each day will
and pause and pose as if to
'Go ahead and smack me, that'
To take advantage of the archipelago at hand
the old man pointed toward the last palpitating island
and once again explained,
"Each roach I smack, you see,
offers me that same good-bye--
one last flicker of antennae."
Donal Mahoney
(©)
copyright
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Donal Mahoney has had work published in Vintage Poetry and various print and electronic publications in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Some of his earliest work can be found at http://booksonblog12.
