Susan Mahan

Susan Mahan

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Born in South Boston, Susan O'Donnell Mahan has been a member of the South Boston Arts Association and an editor for the South Boston Literary Gazette since the fall of 2002. She began writing poetry after her husband died in 1997. She has published two chapbooks, "Paris Awaits" and "In The Wilderness of Grief" and has been published in numerous publications. In November 2003, she had a poem included in "Tokens", an anthology of subway poems published in NYC. In December 2004, she received an Honorable Mention in the Pen Women’s Soul Making contest for her poem, "He Called Me Princess". In February 2005, she was included in "Kiss Me Goodnight", the anthology of poems and stories by women whose mothers died during their childhood.

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Blackout

Blackout, November 1965 It is nearly dark. Mum had died in April.

I am tending pots of carrots and potatoes, while a meatloaf cooks in the oven, the bacon sizzling on top.

I go to the door to call my little brother in and look at the clock: it’s 5:15.

My father and sisters will be home soon.Suddenly, the power goes out. Slightly disoriented,

I recover and peek at the burnerswhich stay lit because we have a gas stove.

Dinner will still be ready by 6.

The eerie blue glow under the pans is the only light source in the house.

The next day, the papers called the blackout

"the most colossal power failure in history."

I stopped writing that year.

I call it affirmation.

World View

I had always loved the world map,

whose pastel shapes lent me endless possibilities.

I'd travel first to the boot of Italy,

I had decided in fourth grade.

When my mother died,

my world so filled with sorrow,

there was no room for hope.

And I wholly accepted

that those pastel shapes

belonged to someone else.