Morse Avenue,
Chicago
It’s two in the morning
and people who live above stores
have sprung from their beds
this hot summer night.
They’re leaning out of their windows
and bellowing into the street
at the baker who launched the alarm
in the Rogers Park Donut Shoppe.
It’s been ringing for hours
and the police haven’t come.
Not even the firemen.
The donuts will never get done
and it appears now that
people who live above stores
will remain in a rage
leaning out of their windows
waving cigarettes like strobes
and bellowing the rest of the night.
–Donal Mahoney
Donal Mahoney, a native of Chicago, lives in St. Louis, MO. He has worked as an editor for The Chicago Sun-Times, Loyola University Press and Washington University in St. Louis. One of many Pushcart Prize nominees, he has had poems published in The Wisconsin Review, The Kansas Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Commonweal, Revival (Ireland), The Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey), Public Republic (Bulgaria), Asphodel Madness, Calliope Nerve and other publications.
