Sunday, July 26, 2015

New Poetry by Donal Mahoney










When My Wife Is in Her Garden

When my wife is in her garden, 
she becomes a ballerina
moving with the morning breeze 
through hollyhocks and roses, 
peonies and phlox.
There is music only she can hear.
It's been that way for 30 years.
I never interrupt her dance

not even when the house caught fire
early in the morning. I didn't holler out
the way another husband might 
if he had never had a gardener for a wife.
Instead I called the firemen,
and while they were on their way, 
I poured water from the sink
on the growing conflagration.












My efforts proved to be in vain.
The firemen arrived too late and so
the house is now a shell of smoke.
The garden still looks beautiful
yet I have no idea what I'll say  
when my wife comes back inside.
But if she's toting roses to arrange 
she may not notice any change.
  

- Donal Mahoney 2015





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