Let Tambourines Begin
Puerto Rican girl
thin, thin,
street lights pour
bourbon on your hair,
anise on your skin.
Puerto Rican girl
thin, thin,
gin one white smile for me.
Let tambourines begin
__________________________
An Easter Rising
Poetry by priests?
Who gives it more than mock attention?
We read their poems, yes,
author first, then the title,
finally the verse itself.
Not much, except for Hopkins.
We wait for Rome, you see,
to give us in addition to its saints
one more decent poet.
A sot once said
“When things get bad enough,
you will see a Celt,
armed with a quiver of poems,
ride flaming out of the hills,
soaring over the lakes,
wearing a rainbow for a Roman collar.”
Things are bad enough right now by half.
We need to hear his gallop now.
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Donal Mahoney has worked as an editor for The Chicago Sun-Times, Loyola University Press 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, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Commonweal, Public Republic (Bulgaria), Revival (Ireland), The Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey), Rusty Truck, Deuce Coupe, Calliope Nerve, Haggard and Halloo, Pirene’s Fountain (Australia) and other publications.
“Let Tamborines Begin” is pretty good.