MICHAEL DENNIS MOONEY -- new writings

Thinking Of A Gift


I'll get you something for your bed?

How about a quilted coverlet?
Your bath? Some monochrome towels perhaps?

Or your beyond? The spiritual domain!
A picture for your wall, a flower vase?

I'm also told that both a crate and barrel
Are on your list -- I checked, they're out of both.

This prospect of your impending nuptials
Gives me some horripilating bump chills!

Yipes! A wedding! Something I'll never do again.
Let's see? You already have a cake plate, right?

What? Of course, you would. You'd prefer cash.
Just let me look in my Greek Uncle's stash.




Things I Need

Room to breathe
And time to read
You bequeath
These things I need
As you're leaving me

More things I need
You leave to me
Such as extra sleep
And thoughts running swift
As clouds of kelp
In the darkening deep

I've the place to myself
Like a castle keep
-- But how can you leave?
That is so rude
I have just had
A Viagra script renewed





Loretta Agonistes
home truths from a small town

In the Press-Republican, a headline,
"Agoney: Fifty Years," tells a story.
Below it a photo, "Gene and Loretta Agoney"
Says the caption. It drives the story home.

Married to Old Agoney for fifty years,
Loretta, at about 70, appears wearied a bit
By the long line of Agoneys flesh is heir to.
They are given local habitations and first names:

"Raymond and Helen Agoney of Peru,
Billy and Paula Agoney of Keeseville,
Jimmy and Tracy Agoney of Keeseville, and
David and Amy Agoney of Beekmantown."
(Plus Penny Agoney, who went off with that Burl fellow.)
And these have produced compound Agoneys!

The copy editor has spared us further Agoneys.
"Their ten grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren"
Are not separately listed. Whew, that was close!

They were married in 1955.
I can picture Loretta then, just out of a movie,
A bio-pic about Michelangelo on the marquee.

She says, "Too many Agoneys! Ecstasies? Too few."