Donal Mahoney

BUSBOY'S BLUES

I think Jesus knows I'm nuts
so why would he arraign me
in front of all those saints on high

so sane they'll never see me
skipping down the road at dawn
and not a soul behind me.

Funnel clouds may tear through hell
but not the ones inside me.
They come and go all on their own

as if they can't abide me.
Today they're off to New Orleans
so batten down the hatches.

When they return they'll churn again
whirligigs inside me.
Yet every day when I get up

I know this much for certain:
I think Jesus knows I'm nuts
so why would he arraign me?

Donal Mahoney has worked as an editor for The Chicago Sun-Times, Loyola University Press, McDonnell Douglas Corp. (now the Boeing Corp.) 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, Commonweal, The Christian Science Monitor, Revival (Ireland), The Beloit Poetry Journal, The Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey), The Davidson Miscellany, Public Republic (Bulgaria) and other publications.