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'Apples Fall Close to Trees' by Donal Mahoney

5/2/2016

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Apples Fall Close to Trees
 
My mother always said my father 
was a little odd and she lived with him 
all those years and should have known.
When we were small my sister and I 
knew he was different. No other father
answered questions in double talk 
hidden in a brogue.
 
My sister and I finally agreed decades later 
that all the neighbors who said he was odd 
were right, too, and who can blame them.
When Mr. Bittle over the fence told my father  
Mr. Murphy from down the block had died, my 
father told Mr. Bittle that people were dying now 
who had never before died. It’s no wonder 
Mr. Bittle went back in the house.
 
My mother said she often forgot how odd 
my father was until he came home from work. 
Once when he was removing the thermos 
from his lunch bucket she told him someone 
had stolen the Brickles’ truck and he yelled,
“What would Mary Supple say to that?”
My mother asked who Mary Supple was 
and my father said she was John Godley’s 
cousin who had married Paddy Supple. 
 
My mother said she had never heard 
of John Godley or Paddy Supple and 
my father said that's because she came 
from the wrong side of Ireland and not 
the side he came from where everyone 
knew the Godleys and Supples farmed 
the land next to the cliff that dropped 
into the sea and if you were courting 
after visiting Ryan’s pub you had to be 
careful dancing close to the edge.
 
As a grandfather myself now I know 
when I double talk with grandson Jack 
and ask him whether kids walk to school 
or carry their lunch and he says they ride 
the bus, I’m not surprised when he asks me 
what’s the difference between an orange. 
 
That’s when I tell Jack it wouldn’t be fair 
if Grumpa told him the answer because 
he’s too smart and can look it up 
in the encyclopedia on my desk.
And then Jack says he’ll Google it
on the iPad when his dad gets home.
He wants an iPad for his birthday, Jack says.
And that’s when I hear my father yelling,
"What would Mary Supple say to that?”
 
 
Donal Mahoney

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