Short Storefront Poems

Outside the storefront
I see the heavy rain fall
No signs of stopping
My Arizona fruit juice
Keeps my mind off the shower...

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Playing in the front window
  of your affection

My love became a storefront
  for all to see

Displaying what my heart
  had kept well hidden

Priced to sell, and tagged
 —on sale for thee

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)...

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Bending, Grabbing, Sorting
 
	          Chinese Laundry
                  Chicago, 1970
 
In a storefront laundry
on North Clark Street
brown draperies release
this quiet man
 
who has my shirts.
He smiles and bows--
how carefully
he wraps them.
 
Before the draperies
fall back, I see,
for a moment,
in a circle swirling
 
almost out of sight
three kerchiefed women,
glistening black,
bending, grabbing, sorting.
 
Donal Mahoney...

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A large toothy Chinese dragon spirits me away.
To lively San Francisco street with paper lanterns.
Trinkets of all shapes and forms. Smells wafting in
Reminding me of Sweet and Sour Chicken and Pepper Beef.

My mouth waters in anticipation of my next meal here.
A dragon! A child’s shrill voice screams. An old woman smiles.
I realize then it has not been my imagination.   I grin at the old
Woman, before I realize it is my reflection in a storefront window....

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November 18th, 1932, Lincoln, Nebraska, main street
fancy pretty new toys are in Jasper’s storefront window
Betty points to a baby doll she would like for Christmas
she does not expect to get it
times have been hard for everyone
she is four and she knows not to get her hopes up
she is tired of being disappointed
she keeps this wish in the back of her mind
in her stocking this year there is an orange
it is more than enough
times have been hard for everyone...

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