Lawrence Hall HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                                   Behold a Man

                                 Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnets 67 & 68

He is a man who needs no oils or scents
The arts of makeup, filters on a lens
A touch of blush upon his honest chin
A photographer’s vanity lights placed just so

He is a man who is his own manly self
Washed, shaved, and combed by his own rugged hands
Hands that know shovel, hammer, ax, and saw
A businessman’s hands, a protective father’s hands

He is a man who needs no frippery
For he is clean and honest and just, you see

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                          Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority

                                Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 66

The good among us may indeed be tired
Of being subject to the rule of strident oafs
Jumped-up in station beyond ability
Smug in their electronic ignorance

Their shifting, shifty, and unwritten codes
Order awrong what we might speak and write
How we may draw and paint and film and think
In obedience to their fluid absolutes

But then there is you, a spirit free indeed
A reason for all to hope for a better world

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

         Hate Has No Veto Over Love – Two Thoughts on the Matter

Some people say that
Hate has no veto over love
Some people say that

Some people say that
Hate has no veto over love
And we say that too

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                         ­    You are Eternal

                                Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 65

We are told that all things will be renewed
And so this moment with you this springtime day
This scene, these leaves, these trees, this happy breeze
You
Are as eternal as an Ave Maria

I will write about you, but is that real?
The living you of beauty and kind words
Should not be subject to paper and ink
No
But only to the verities of Creation

A memory in ink is but a transient thing
For eternity lives in the realm of the King

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                         31 May 2024 – The Prophet-God Descends

A being descends a de-escalator of brass
As if he were beaming down from the Hale-Bopp
A prophet-god to a room thin with ghosts
Who in hollowness hang upon his vanities

He pauses

Then whines

Obscenities
Threats
Promises
Resentments
Anger

Flinging blame and incomplete sentences

Into a void

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                        Everyone Writes Haiku about the Moon

                               And that’s because we love her

The soft, swelling moon
It’s as if she’s giving birth
Giving us new life

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

               A Pharmacy Aisle Marked INDEPENDENT LIVING

                                 “We shall never surrender”

                                          -Churchill, 1940

Bed and bath grip bars, universal crutches
Quadrupedal crutch tips, raised toilet seats
Cleaning wipes, reaching tools, bedside commodes
Walking sticks (but not one with an Elvis theme)

Sitz baths and universal urinals
Transport chairs, folding walkers, rolling walkers
Commode liner bags, inflatable cushions
Walker ski glides, walker tennis *****

None of this is depressing; it is inspiring:
“We shall never surrender”