The Widow Next Door
Every Saturday
when the sun is out
and it’s hotter than Hades
Monica next door
raises her garage door
early in the morning
and leaves it up
long past noon as if
Herm will walk out
at any minute
oily and greasy
needing to clean up
the way he used to
every Saturday
for 30 years until
liquor ate his liver.
At night Monica
can still hear
the tall Marine
fingering Taps
over Herman’s grave.
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