Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                             Who are You to Argue with a Prophet?

                    Christians flock to Washington to pray for America  
                    to turn to God — by electing Trump

                             -NBC News Headline, 13 October 2024

When a man proclaims that he is a prophet
Hang on to your wallet and guard your soul
Lest all your works and hopes be burned in Tophet:
A stolen fragment of truth betrays the whole

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                        A Dixon Ticonderoga #2 Pencil from 1955

Motorized bathroom vents don’t last forever
The workmen pulled down the old one from ‘55
Amid a tumble of old nails and bits of wood:
A Dixon Ticonderoga #2

The yellow paint a little aged now
The green metal ring a little bit dull
The eraser now hardened beyond all use
The point well-sharpened with a pocketknife

What sturdy craftsman from the long ago
Measured out his work - I’d like to know

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                                An Autumn Flight

A leaf fell, a leaf
A life of summer in flight
In bright golden flight

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                             Autumn Jewish Space Leaves

This morning the sun rose at seven-fifteen
                    Jewish space lasers had something to do with it
The air outside was October-cool and still
                    I’m pretty sure that this was an IDF scheme

A leaf in silence fell to the still-green grass
            No doubt the Mossad planned it that way
Leaves didn’t fall when Trump was president
                    These Jews control all vegetation!

Another leaf floated into my coffee cup
             The mainstream media said nothing about this
Fox News was silenced for thirty seconds or so
                      There’s a They out there who don’t want us to know

I used to enjoy autumn mornings a lot
              But now I know that weather is a Jewish plot!

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

  One Does Not Pre-Imagine Pre-Edward R. Murrow Pre-Babbling

                         A Lesson in Clear Writing for Journalists

Hunker down, swath of destruction, hunker down, write your Social Security number on your arm, hunker down, eerie, hunker down, monster, hunker down, time ticking down / away, hunker down, pre-positioned, hunker down, pre-planned, hunker down, pre-need (and maybe even pre-hunker down), hunker down, pre-deployed, hunker down, spooky (and possibly pre-spooky), hunker down, snapped like matchsticks (“Daddy, what’s a matchstick?”), hunker down, doomed paradise, hunker down, paradise lost, hunker down, lost paradise, hunker down, apocalypse, hunker down, biblical, hunker down, storm of the century (again?), hunker down, doomed, hunker down, doomed, hunker down, pummeled, hunker down, pummeled, hunker down, pummeled, hunker down, power lines brightly bursting, hunker down, eerie calm, hunker down, eerie quiet, hunker down, birds chirping, hunker down, unexpected sparks, hunker down, hazards are unfolding, hunker down, street lamps waver, hunker down, one-two punch, hunker down, what we know, hunker down, hunker down, hunker down

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                  A Treatise on the Burrowing Habits of Dachshunds


                                                   in memory of

                                     Astrid-the-Wonder-Dachshund

                six pounds of barking, yapping, demanding, and love


A dachshund will burrow under the garden fence
For every dachshund thinks she is a wolf
A fearsome apex predator with a squeaky toy -
This is in the nature of dachshunds

A dachshund will burrow into your tightly-closed hand
Nosing out the doggie treat you have hidden there
A fearsome apex predator and omnivore -
This is in the nature of dachshunds

A dachshund will burrow into your end-of-day lap
Watching both the television and the cats
A fearsome apex predator drooling on your book -
This is in the nature of dachshunds

A dachshund will burrow, borrow, beg, and bark
And in her foreshadowing of that better World to come
A dachshund will burrow deeply into your heart -
And love you forever

This is in the nature of dachshunds

And of you

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com


                                 “Tell Them to Let Me Go!”


    For those who live in a land of great darkness, a light will shine

                                                   -Isaiah 9:2


While waiting in the dark for an escort to the gate
To the prison gate, to the parking lot
Beyond the moonlit coils of razor wire
A Voice from a darker place cries to me:

“I’M TIRED OF THIS *!

I’M TIRED OF THIS *!

I’M TIRED OF THIS **!

Hey, mister!”

Self: “Yes?”

Voice: “Tell those people to let me out of here!”

Self: “I will, but they don’t often listen to me.”

With wry and ancient humor the Voice laughs.