ISSUE 46
February 2010

Joseph McDonough

 

Joseph McDonough is a stockbroker living in northeastern Pennsylvania. Having worked in the World Trade Center prior to 9/11, he began writing poetry of witness in the wake of this monumental tragedy. His work appears in Switched on Gutenberg, The Hypertexts, Lilly, and Poetry Life and Times (London).

The Fall of Paris    

      Daybreak

They marched us
all day long
through the camp
compound, which is
to say, we had failed
at our appointed duties.
To the west lay
the smouldering city
to the east
the Great Sea.


      Nightfall

No more marching.
The moon hung
in the sky
like a communion wafer,
as if Chagall had painted
on a celestial palette,
each night, the light
tumbling down,
through my grey window
like so much hope
over the broken city.

 

 

Joseph McDonough: Poetry
Copyright ©2010 The Cortland Review Issue 46The Cortland Review