Job Interviews
Infinite feints
for a lane
to go driving.
Still there’s
no opening.
Jump shot
pumped from afar
spits in the net,
sole sound.
The bucket is made,
but the ball
the ball is still bouncing.
I Have to Ask Why
This morning at table
as the kids scream for breakfast
and I ask for peace
my wife stirs the porridge
and claims, “There are days
God walks me to the edge
and at the last second
draws me back.
I have to ask why.”
At noon, as I suck
on a strawberry shake
in a diner near work
and ponder her question,
two lesbians in a booth
behind me bicker and swear
about who'll pay
the air fare to Miami.
I have to ask why.
DONAL MAHONEY, a native of Chicago, lives in St. Louis, MO. He has worked as an editor for The Chicago Sun-Times, Loyola University Press and Washington University in St. Louis. He has had poems published in or accepted by The Wisconsin Review, The Kansas Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Commonweal, Public Republic (Bulgaria), Revival (Ireland), The Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey), Word Slaw, Poetry Super Highway, Pirene's Fountain (Australia) and other publications.
