Poem – Sally in the Alley and Joanie in the Weeds (By Donal Mahoney)

Sarah makes sandwiches all day,

piling meat and trimmings high

on pillowy bread she spreads

apart before her customers’ eyes.

Hardworking men love her sandwiches

and sometimes date her after work

but none so far has mentioned marriage.

This confuses Sarah who’s as open

as her bread in satisfying men.

That’s not too wise, says Ethel,

a granny clone Sarah chats with

after lunch-hour rush.

Ethel says when she was Sarah’s age

women demanded a wedding first,

except for two legends she remembers:

Sally in the Alley and Joanie in the Weeds

were consumed by many men, Ethel says,

then tossed aside like sandwich wrappers.

Author Bio:

Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri. He has had fiction and poetry published in various publications in the U.S. and elsewhere. Among them are The Galway Review (Ireland), The Recusant (England), The Missing Slate (Pakistan), Guwahatian Magazine (india), Bluepepper (Australia), The Osprey Journal (Wales), Public Republic (Bulgaria), and The Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey). Some of his earliest work can be found at http://booksonblog12.blogspot.com and some of his newer work at https://www.antarcticajournal.com/donal-mahoney-recent-works