Previous Page | Poetry

Mary O'Donnell

Selection of Poems

The Unfinished Fall
You fell down
From the heavens.
I fell for you
In a day.

In a dream
I saw you coming,
Coming straight
My way.

We fell into a love,
A love to last this day.
We kissed
Then fell into water

A water fall in May.

You followed
From the water.
In a fortnight,
Taken away.

The waterfall,
my wall,
hole in my soul
To inveigh

Your absence.

The gaping wound
Was covered
Patched, painted
I prayed

It is now
A heavy heart
And cold future
I must weigh

This man, my idyll,
This one true love,
Can I,
Shall I stay?

Must I wait
So many moons
For your suns
To brighten my day?

MOD May 24, 2005

Winded
Breaking the surface
A silvery day
All sails now unfurled
A cruise underway

Jib and mainsail
Exposed to the fray
Sailing through time
A Cat on a bay

Happily tacking
Our cares all away
Head in the clouds
Not much to say

Endlessly dreaming
Forestalling and
Scheming
Avoiding the close
Of this day

MOD 1999


A Day In September
We hung our heads in silence

As we searched for those to blame.

An empty hole of violence

Recalled our growing shame.

People staring blindly,

Clouds of fire

And a plane.

Our hearts slowed to still the silence

The day the Towers rained

A Little Less
A little less human
A little less kind
Turning up the volume
In search of peace of mind

In an age of technology
Brains replaced with chips
Diminished creativity
Computer screens for lips

Disposable people
Living recycled lives
Wasted without purpose
Refuse thrown aside

Mothers without sons
Daughterless fathers
Lost little ones
Like flotsam in the water

No longer feel the rain
Or the wind on my face
Haunted by de trop
Always out of place

In the heat of the moment
The heat of the day
Blindly stumbling forth
Searching for the way

Yet on the way becoming

A little less human
And a little less kind
Ever increasing Life's volume
In search of peace of mind

MOD April 1999

Come Back
The poetry in numbers
12 years
3 weeks
A day
You did not want to hurt me
Are those the words you say

Why did you leave me
Won't you come back
It's the hours
They're too long
And your touch
I do so lack

If I could only wait
For you to do
What you must
Would the trail of tears I cry
Be forgotten
In the dust

Why did you have to leave me
Won't you please come back
Its the hours
They're too long
And through my body
The sobs do rack

The poetry in numbers
With each day
I am counting
Will this love I've found return
Will my sadness
Cease
From mounting

I long to hold you near me
I love you oh so dearly

MOD July 8, 2001

A Requisite Rallying Cheer
Cheer Up Buttercup
Don't lose faith now
Your dreams are so near fulfillment
You'd be a real cow

To lose site of your goal
Quit epoxying too
Can you imagine
What Edison would do?

Pastuer, Picasso, Rodin and Smothers Brothers
Never gave up in the face of others
Opinions and advice

They held fast to their dreams

And so should you
You and me kid
We have lots yet to do

Keep the faith, Sistah.

March 1, 1999
Let March roar in like a lion, as you with your paints
It will creep out like a lamb, as Coke with your montage

Mary O'D…

Judas, My Love
You were too good for this world.
I tended to your barter, you tended to the sheep.
Hanging out with the sinners: prostitutes, lepers and thieves.
You cast out my brethren from the temple where they prayed.
It was at me they looked askance, no matter what you said.
At the Pharisees dinner, you were not welcomed with the oil,
nor were your road-weary feet cleaned. Mary Magdalene wept from the disrespect,
cleansing your feet with her tears, drying them with her hair,
anointing them with the alabaster oil. She wasted all that precious oil.
This angered and embarrassed me.
You refused to display your glory; this infuriated me.
I, who knew of your greatness, could not protect you
when others claimed you were false, called you weak.
They castigated me for believing you. Enough so, I stopped.
I stopped believing you, I ceased to believe in you.
I stopped loving you. And I really loved you.
Then I hated you. I worshipped you. I despised you.
I BETRAYED YOU.
30 pieces of silver would buy me many sheep.
Sheep who would follow and listen.
Oh God, what have I done?
At that final supper, you knew what I planned to do.
You said, "Among 12, there is one who will betray me."
I was frozen by the chill that ran through my blood.
You said, "It is the one who, into his cup, next dips his bread."
In the transubstantiation to follow, it was I who ate of your body and drank of your blood.
I still followed through. I knew it was wrong, still I betrayed you.
Into the Garden of Gethsemene, I led your torturers to you.
A kiss of betrayal, a revelatory act.
Can you ever forgive me? It was faith that I lacked.
They dragged you away to crown you, a beating most befitting.
I sought those who had bought you, why was I so unwitting?
They laughed at me and said, "What's done is done and can't be undone."
It struck me then, my faith returned, there was nowhere I could run.
It was you who had taught me your father's everywhere, in all beings.
I could not hide, nor be forgiven.
Who was I to start fleeing? I wanted to run to you, to save you.
Desperately, I tried to find you, reverse the course I'd set.
Those thirty, dirty, silver pieces would not be changed for your life.
I threw them to the wind, in the Field of Blood they grew.
You said, "It would have been better had Judas not been born."
What worse words could there be?
I knew I could never be forgiven.
How would you understand my profound sorrow, regret?
Could you see into the depths of my heart?
Where does one go to hide from himself?
In my final despair, I once again defied your greatness.
There is no love left. The light is going out.
Oh God, what have I done?
Its becoming harder to breathe.
My final whisper the softest breath,
"Can you ever forgive me, Jesus, my life?
Father, will you forgive my death?
MOD 10/30/03

The Awakening
Nested comfortably under the arch of one leg bent, spent
a day in awe of the nostrils flaring, comparing the inert life
with that of sheer passion. Feeling the chill of the
metal muscle rippling in the shoulder, fingertips tracing
a scream sent from an openly distraught mouth
shadowed by a clenched fist; can't resist
the impulse to lay in the sculpted hand of a metallic man.
I too, wish to cry. Wonder why an emergence so violent, so real
Compels me to so deeply feel, with passion I wish to write.
How difficult it is to describe, lest you venture inside
the mind of a man whose only plan to remain resting
underground disrupted, accompanied by the silent sound
of a writhing body struggling from the bondage of earth, soil.
He's kicking out. Is there a doubt partially revealed secrets stay buried?
MOD
10/28/03

Gretchen
Had you known
You would not be long for this world
Would you have done life
A bit differently?
The glare of the sun
Always at your back,
On your face,
In your hair
On your nose,
Could you have dared
To do it differently?

Living life like a wild child
Roaring into the night
Seated behind the wheel of a black corvette,
PhD.within the grasp of your hands,
The clasp of wringing wrists
Worriedly wondering if you
Were finally within reach of the genius, success
You were born to bear of the family.

The golden girl, fallen child,
The forgotten, prodigal daughter-son.
How could one explain
The humor that you spun
As you sat there
Unprotected, unshielded
In the glaring of the sun?

You made all of us laugh
The intellect bursting from your brain.
Shall it be said once more again:
Would you have done it all differently?

Choices without consequence,
Some without thought
Would you have changed
The wreckage choices wrought?

Did you know your Sol brother
Is a nemesis to the fair,
An enemy of the
Blue-eyed, blonde haired
Wonderful wunderkind?

MOD 11/17/03

Forlorn
What I would be

If it weren't for someone like me

Wonders, all to view

If there wasn't so much to do.

Time spent escaping,

Eyes left gaping

Dreams abandoned, lost

For all too high a cost.

How much would I pay

To live for one more day?

At what price freedom;

What can ever free them.

The object once was peace,

Now its just a piece.

Time spent grabbing,

Mouths forever gabbing.

Left to sit and seethe,

Barely able to breathe.

No time to even talk,

Legs too tired to walk.

Where is there strength,

To whom must I pull rank?

When will come the day

For all my efforts to pay?

What I would be

If only I were free.

What I could do

From any point of view.

Phantoms
Farewell my phantom friend

Your image is fading fast.

Floating away and intangible,

Clouds of a hand I couldn't grasp.

There wasn't a ghost of a chance

To dance one lone dance.

Where once your image stood

A hologram remains,

A shadow

Slipping in and out of lives

Leaving no a trace

Or depth

In the ripple

Of a wake,

Which dissipates

With the change of tides.


Reflections
If I am your mirror
When I see your face
Is it your
Or my
Eyes weeping
Reflecting back in place?

Pule by pulse
I'll match
Your each
And every
Breath
Whisper
Words of love
While feeling helplessness.

If, as your mirror
Your truth
Shall soon
Be mine
That which you do
Will karma back to you
Time
After time
After fucking
Time.

Why It Happened the Way That It Happened

Part 1: The coming of the sadness
Abuse, abortion,
Assassination, AIDS.
Belittling bereft
Begrudging betrayal.
Carelessly conniving
In cohoots with a
Congressional body
Buoyed by a
Bullshit presidential
Catatonic leadership,
Slithering by on
Careless chitchat.
Debilitating debt
Distorting denial,
Equal disdain.
Egregious emptiness
Enveloping estrangement.
Foolhardy
Friendlessness
Frankly forgetting
Flippant foibles.
Gaping gaps of goodwill
Generating gibberish
Hateful harassment
Insipid ignorance leading to
Inexplicable ravages
Of an unjust,
Criminal,
Undeclared war.
Jubilant jesters
Keelhauling
All them kill devils.
Lackluster loss
Leaving
Then left.
Maniacal mass
Murdering using
Nebulous napalm.
Obliterating, obviating
Onanistic ornaments.
Philandering
Pedophiles
Preying on
Parental pride.
Quantifying
Querulous
Quandaries
Rectifying
Reckless
Religion.
Simulating
Standard setbacks
Torrentially
Tantamount to
Undulating uvulations
In a veritable vortex.
Wordlessly
Wondering
Why?
Why?
Why?
Xacting xtremes,
Yawning and yelping,
Zealously
Zigzagging to
Zanzibar relief.

Tears For Benazir
Veiled woman
Failed attempt.
Veiled warriors
Never repent.

Repatriated to
A now foreign land,
God's chosen one
Fated by man.

Valiant light
Beacon of night
Bright
Burning light
Extinguished
By fright.

A mortal, calculated
Bullets collision;
Bullets of
Political
Religious
Precision.

Fatal drives
Fractured lives
Vulnerable
As a fledgling
in spring.

A most familiar collusion,
Terror-infusion,
Selective exclusion
Turf war profusion

Until there are no more.