A Heart Ticks In Here

You find old poems in the attic
in a box with the Remington Rand
you wrote them on in the Sixties
before computers were born.

They were published then in little
magazines like Bitterroot, the one 
put out by Menke Katz, who loved 
poetry by anyone from anywhere 
who gave everything to write it.

What to do now with these poems
still breathing on paper but 
scarred by erasures, smudges
and yellowed by time. 

You could send them out 
to a website where they might 
appear until the site disappears 
for reasons that take over 
the editor's life.

Or you could put them back in 
the box with the Remington Rand
and use a Sharpie to write
a note on the box that says
"Don’t throw this box out. 
A heart ticks in here.”


Donal Mahoney

Copyright © | Year Posted 2017



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