Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

         What This Country Needs is a Better Class of Criminals

I was frustrated that the lawn mower wouldn’t start
And checked the battery - that wasn’t there
A dull thief in darkness practicing his art
Had spirited it away – that wasn’t fair!

But the poor stupid burglar had no profit that night
He stumbled on the porch and dropped his loot
Cracking the battery, so he fled in fright:
It’s just too bad he didn’t fall on his snoot

(Sigh)

Aspiring young criminals, roll up your sleeves -
What this country needs are intelligent thieves

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                            These are not the Leaves of Autumn

These are not the leaves of autumn, these husks;
They died so young, fallen from the summer-burnt oaks
Leaving the lingering limbs barren of green
A struggle of woody cells against the drought

They wear no celebratory colors
Nothing of red or gold to catch the sun
For they died of thirst in their lost-green youth
Never reaching the October they had earned

These are not the leaves of autumn, oh, no
But only shells dry-rattling in the wind

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

          The Existential Despair in Replacing a Lawnmower Battery

My language is blue and my knuckles bleed -
I can never find the wrench I need!

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com


        Watch Where You Step; There Might be a Senator in the Grass


                    But hiss for hiss return’d with forked tongue

                                           -Paradise Lost X.518


The summer heat like judgement on the earth -
It fell upon the roiling afternoon dust
Where two foul snakes in deadly combat writhed
With hiss and strike and hate-spittled fangs

In a world of crunchy grasshoppers and tasty frogs
Of careless bunny rabbits and baby squirrels
The snakes found only their hatred for each other
Until one serpent choked on the other, and both died

And there, my children, is a lesson in brief
About the government of the State of Texas

Lawrence Hall, HSG
mhall46184@aol.com

                     Will the Plowed Boys Find Love in the End?

Romantic robots could bring peace to our streets -
The Plowed Boys would have something to ******
Other than their idle trifles and bang-bang rifles
For in the end they would have dates after all

And will they wear

Their he-man soldier suits and bug-eyed shades
Their he-man soldier toys dangling from carabiners
Their radios and whistles and lip-dangling ciggies

while in bed?

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                 Joining the Class Struggle

                              “Yuri, what splendid words!”

                                  -Anna in Doctor Zhivago

Lift high the red banner, comrades and comradettes!
Lift high the made-in-China bullhorns against the rich
Make crudely misspelt signs and block the streets
(How dare the workers work while we’re yelling at them)

Pull down the statue of St. Joan of Arc!
Because she was, like, you know, a Confederate general
And smash the windows of the corporate coffee shops
(Make mine a decolonized double decaf)

Liberate the people’s goods! To arms! To arms!
(But who will stay behind to work the farms?)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                       Toys at the Base of an Oak Tree

            “We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?” asked Piglet.
            “Even longer,” Pooh answered.

                                                    - A. A. Milne

You find them at the base of a tree sometimes:
A pewter knight or a plastic Robin Hood
Or a marble lost in the long-ago
Turned up among the weeds by shifting roots

In the leafy silences of summer a little boy
Practiced the arts of magic and manliness
With Robin Hood and the pewter knight searching for a jewel
To present to their Lady Marian

When he was a little older the boy walked to town
To the bus station, and off to a distant war
A jewel sacrificed to the blasphemy of the State
You’ll find his name at the base of a stone

But the pewter knight and the plastic Robin Hood
And beautiful Lady Marian still wait for him