Donal Mahoney

A Man and a Dog

A reporter asked Wilbur once

if there were any advantages

to being deaf and Wilbur

used sign language to say

not that he could think of

except you miss all the gossip

and that’s a good thing

if you live alone in a trailer camp

in a small town in Oklahoma

but it’s not a good thing

when a tornado comes through

and everyone else hears it

at midnight and gets out alive

but they forget to wake you

and you go up with the tornado 

along with a dog 

you can’t hear barking,

two small stars in the sky.

Donal Mahoney

As Wally Explained on the Locked Side Later

Another day at the zoo and 

Wally’s new job was to feed the apes. 

Old Stanley had fed the apes 

for 40 years and loved the job 

but told Wally he was retiring.

He was showing Wally the ropes when 

Wally got hit with a coconut 

lobbed by JuJu, the oldest ape, 

who liked Stanley but not Wally.

Stanley drove Wally to a dentist 

to check the damage to his teeth

but the dentist wanted to be paid 

in advance and Wally had

no money, only a bus pass 

and a bag lunch back in his locker.

He had never had a credit card. 

The dentist looked and sounded

like Mel Brooks and kept saying

he wanted his money before drilling. 

Wally’s father came to the office

and started writing a big check 

to the plumber who had come over

the previous week to fix the toilet.

Bleeding from the mouth Wally yelled,

“Dad, write the check to Mel Brooks, 

not the plumber," but his father said,

“Wally, shut up for a change" and he

kept writing the check to the plumber.

His father had been dead for 30 years

but he and Wally never got along well  

when his father was alive either.

Donal Mahoney

Answer Me This, America

Took the wife 

to a pancake house

the other day. 

National franchise

good food 

fine reputation.

Skipped the pancakes

had bacon, eggs,

hash browns, toast

and coffee.

Wife went fancy,

had an omelette.

Grabbed the check

because the busboy 

started clearing 

the table early.

A young dervish

new to the job

swirling his cloth

for minimum wage.

Bothered me 

to realize he'd work

three hours and a skosh

to pay for the same 

breakfast, more

if he left a tip.

Reminded me 

something’s wrong

with our great nation,

how we do business.

Have both ears open.

Hoping for an answer.

Donal Mahoney

Marimba in the Afternoon

Raul is a kind man

who plays marimba

in a salsa band at LA clubs

late into the night.

Some afternoons he plays 

at a nursing home in Cucamonga 

where he was born, grew up

and dashed home from school.

He’s paid with a taco,

maybe an enchilada,

a burrito now and then. 

On Sunday a fresh tamale

almost as good as his mother

used to make after being in  

the fields all day, long ago.

Old-timers in the day room 

bounce in their chairs, some 

on wheels, to Raul's music.

Long ago they were young 

and danced all night in

tiny clubs after being paid 

a few dollars a basket for 

picking grapes and plums 

under pounding sun.

Donal Mahoney

Fly Fishing

Many years ago Miriam’s parents 

took the kids for the weekend 

while she and Jack motored north 

to fish for trout in Montana 

at Miriam's request. 

Unsteady in her hip-waders 

but casting with abandon,

Miriam lobbed a snide remark 

and the hook snagged Jack's ear.

Jack told her not to worry, 

just a tiny bit of blood.

He'd put a band-aid on it 

back at the cabin

before he fried 

the rainbow trout still

wriggling in her creel.

Decades later Jack is back

at the cabin with his Phyllis,

a quiet woman who

has never cast for trout.  

He thinks she’ll do well.

Jack’s lost track of Miriam,

who sold the house long ago.

The kids are on their own.

He still scratches the ear 

where an itch recalls 

Miriam’s remark.