Take an aspirin and shave for the show,
drink black coffee, rehearse the grin.
For office light's embalming-glow,
take an aspirin and shave for the show.
Staple the tremors, make blood flow.
Bleach out the sweat for the boardroom spin.
Take an aspirin and shave for the show,
drink black coffee, rehearse the grin.

He put up
An art piece sign
In the New York subway
That read
PLEASE DONT SMILE AT STRANGERS
And it barely raised a grin
Most sagely nodded
Then stared down
At their screens again.

In the white theatre of the gale,
a barn’s vermilion gates
and the woolen scarlet of kin
stand like beacons to the lost.

The air is a script of whirling ash,
yet in the hearth’s small kingdom
rosehip constellations drift
through the dark gold sea of tea —

                      omens of return,
of warmth wrested
          from the storm’s        
                               dominion.





.

In the Amazon there's a moth
who lives by drinking the night-tears
of sleeping birds.

By day she's folded asleep
deep in green minarets where purple frogs
sweat pearls of poison.

If she dreams, it's only by accident.
At dawn the birds fly up, eyes
opened by song, tears given

without intent or knowledge
as I give mine, silver life
to the mouths of memories.



March, 2024

Never liked horses
they reminded me
of all the women I rode

They would buck
and bray
they would disagree
and say
neigh neigh neigh

They would toss
me to the ground
Stomp and rear
make horrible
sounds

Best when
unbridled
unsaddled
left to roam
free

If you look up
Is it there?
All I see is air
Why do I raise
my arms up
hoping that God
hears my prayer

Is it some kind
of wicked game
we play ?

I never dreamed
I would meet
someone like you

What a deception
fast of feet
What a reception
so incomplete

I raise my
empty hands up
asking God
"Where is my love ?"

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                       *** Toys and Goal to Go

          NFL game interrupted by *** toy at most confusing time
          possible and CBS fooled - The Mirror US

There are sports, and then there are sports
Whether in a warm bed or upon a playing field
For after the game young lovers’ disports
Follow when to each other happy love-birds yield

It seems rather awkward when curious *** toys
Are flung onto the fifty-yard line, or even more
Toward the goal while our favorite boys
Anticipate later that night quite another score

Oh, football fans!

Do think of the children, and try to refrain
From tossing toys (well, maybe an electric train)

the clock,
it ticks.

tick
   tock
       tick
            tock

it keeps me awake
in the silence of the night.

that odd hour when
it isn't quite midnight
but also not quite dawn.

it's deafening almost.

it makes me hear things..

is there someone in the house?

creak


tick
   tock
       tick
            tock

no.

maybe i should check.

the clock,
it ticks.

and it keeps me up.

i barely sleep.

all things for love

all things

conquered

death
taken
prisoner