The Girls in Steno, 1970 by Donal Mahoney
When it’s break time
the girls all walk together,
cigarette-protector cases
clasped between their index
*
tapers and their thumbs.
On each girl’s fingers glow
iridescent lacquers.
When break time nears,
*
they peek at each other,
twinkle, giggle, nod.
When break time comes,
a bell rings and the girls rise
*
like Lazarus. High on heels
they click in couples down the hall
to fill an elevator.
They get off at One. There
*
they float across the cafeteria,
men everywhere,
eyes everywhere.
(Is he the one?)
*
When a new girl’s hired
the old girls
put her to the test:
Will she join them
*
for the coffee break?
If she does, she joins them forever,
even after she marries,
retires or expires.
____________________
Donal Mahoney has had poems published in a variety of print and online publications, including The Wisconsin Review, The Kansas Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Commonweal, Public Republic (Bulgaria), Revival (Ireland), The Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey) and A Golden Place. A native of Chicago, he lives now in St. Louis, Missouri, where he discovered, much to his doctor’s distress, biscuits and gravy.
____________________
Editor’s Note: Please continue praying for Bennett, and prayerfully consider contributing to the Compassionate Creativity fundraiser happening this month. Let’s find this little boy a home!
