New Life Begins

white hips a soft fist
for the wrist of your waist
black hair in a spill
on your shoulders
small whirlpools
your ankles
green streams ride
your calves
blue rivers your thighs
I finger the flute
on the back of your neck
rise and slip in
at that moment
dawn and new
life begins

Snow Day

Snowing outside,
and the boy in short pants
swings a broom.
He's at bat
in his room
that's a park
for the other boy
smaller and kneeling
waiting his turn
or the Sun,
maybe Spring,
whichever comes first.

Botanical Garden

When she arrives
in sunlight,
orchid ribbons flowing
in her hair,
an orchid dress rising,
the rest of us
are standing there,
simply unaware
that only she can hear
the applause
of a thousand orchids
break the air.

Donal Mahoney has worked as an editor for The Chicago Sun-Times, Loyola University Press, McDonnell Douglas Corporation (now Boeing), and Washington University in St. Louis. He has had poems published in or accepted by The Wisconsin Review, Revival (Ireland), The Kansas Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, Commonweal, The Beloit Poetry Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, The Davidson Miscellany, The Goddard Journal, The Pembroke Magazine, The Chicago Sunday Tribune Magazine and other publications.