An Old Poet Shares a Secret
The editor of the school paper
came at the appointed hour
and found the old poet
in his backyard alert
in a lawn chair with a
butterfly net on his lap.
She opened her iPad,
conducted her interview
and asked him at the end
where poems come from.
The old poet said he didn’t know.
That’s why he has his butterfly net.
If a poem floats by he uses his net
to lift if carefully out of the air,
take it in the house and pin it
to the wall with his name under it.
When his wall’s covered with poems
he calls his publisher who comes
and takes the poems away.
In six months the old poet says
he has another book on Amazon.
Donal Mahoney
