Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                               More Real and More Beautiful

          “This is still Narnia, and more real and more beautiful than
            the Narnia down below, just as it was more real and more
            beautiful than the Narnia outside the stable door!”

                          -Lucy in C. S. Lewis’ The Last Battle

More of the old family land is to be sold off
Forests of my childhood and happy fields
Where breezes still ripple the summer grass
Soon to be beaten and carved as lots and plots

The bales of hay, each barefoot day – all lost
And down the hill where runs a magic rill
My Sherwood Forest will be cleared of good trees
Its dreaming paths overlaid with sewers and streets

And along the fence little tufts of grass
Where all those noble dogs of long ago lie buried
My companions in all adventures
Awaiting my whistle to roam with me again

Well, I will pack them and all my childhood up -
And someday pour them from a golden Cup

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                        Camouflage in Trump Country

I walk into the cafe’ wearing a boonie hat
Although the boonies were fifty years ago
But I don’t look like a worthy comrade -
In Trump country you need good camouflage

I walk into the store wearing a barn coat
Although I have never owned a barn
But I don’t look like an NRA-rade -
In Trump country you need good camouflage

A patriot shouldn’t need to be a mirage
but -
In Trump country you need good camouflage

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                 Each Altar is Minas Tirith

Each Altar is Minas Tirith these days
A city of kings and of the true King
Behind whose twice-barred gates and golden doors
The faithful may find refuge for a time

From here the King, enthroned, rules over us
At his Table He gives us seats of honor
And serves Himself to us as food and truth
Even as dark armies swarm outside

We are often told that we are hopeless romantics
Oh, no
For we are hopeful romantics, and will not yield

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                        Participation Ribbons

John Wayne as Steve Williams: “How'd you do last season?”
Charles Coburn as Father Malone: “We showed up for every game.”
Steve Williams: “I'd say that was raw courage.”

                               -Trouble Along the Way (1953)

I’ve heard of participation ribbons
But I’ve never seen one. Do they exist?
People seem to disapprove of them
But participation means showing up

There are those who wake up every morning
Feed the kids breakfast, fire up an old car
Make the school run, and then are off to work
At the cafe’, the store, or the auto shop

That’s participation, all right, and courage
A ribbon? Most folks deserve a medal

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                 Each Altar is Minas Tirith

Each Altar is Minas Tirith these days
A city of kings and of the true King
Behind whose twice-barred gates and golden doors
The faithful may find refuge for a time

From here the King, enthroned, rules over us
At his Table He gives us seats of honor
And serves Himself to us as food and truth
Even as dark armies swarm outside

We are often told that we are hopeless romantics
Oh, no
For we are hopeful romantics, and will not yield

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     ­ Disney’s Macbeth

                     Upon the release of Joel Coen’s version

I want to see Macbeth in Technicolor
Almost Disney-ish, in cheery pastels,
With bright-lit halls and sunny fields of flowers
And maybe Annette as Lady Macbeth

And let Macbeth be a comely youth
With muscular hands that wield both sword and pen
An honest merry face that smiles with ease
Sweet words and penitent Aves on his lips

The world is well-lit ever since the ark -
It is the human heart that lurks in the dark




Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are young - why does no one work with that?
#macbeth

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                  For Jack on his 16th Birthday

                              Music, Magic, and Father Brown

In the long ago I was reading a book
(And doubtless thinking many brilliant thoughts)
Sitting in my car outside Our Lady’s Church
Waiting for some old-lady meeting to end

And suddenly, silently, there you were
A little boy standing at my shoulder
Peering through the window, and then you said
These thoughtful words: “You look like Father Brown.”

And suddenly, silently, here I am
Standing at your shoulder and looking up
For now you are taller than I – and that
Is in the nature of how things should be

But a blessing now on your birthday, you see
For you and Cate are always a blessing to me!

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                       Of Course I Didn’t Worship at The Super Bowl

As a man who had better tend to his soul
Of course I didn’t worship at the Super Bowl

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

Of Course I Didn’t Worship at The Super Bowl

As a man who had better tend to his soul
Of course I didn’t worship at the Super Bowl

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     ­ Disney’s Macbeth

                     Upon the release of Joel Coen’s version

I want to see Macbeth in Technicolor
Almost Disney-ish, in cheery pastels,
With bright-lit halls and sunny fields of flowers
And maybe Annette as Lady Macbeth

And let Macbeth be a comely youth
With muscular hands that wield both sword and pen
An honest merry face that smiles with ease
Sweet words and penitent Aves on his lips

The world is well-lit ever since the ark -
It is the human heart that lurks in the dark

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                             We Few, We Abandoned Few

          “...the dead uncharitably enclosed in nuclear dust...”

                                           -not Henry V

Let us not go to war this week or the next
Poking our explosives into other folks’ business
Military contractors shedding the blood of families
(Hell hath no fury like a balance sheet)

Let us not go to war this week or the next
Flinging the children of the poor to their deaths
While the rich party through graduate school
(They say the fighting is rough in Harvard Yard)

Let us not go to war this week or the next
But instead offer up all issues to God

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     The Morning of the Funeral

Mostly waiting. Coat and tie, Sunday shoes
Quiet conversation. How was your breakfast
Who’s driving the cousins to the airport later
Do the animals have water and food

He’s in a better place now. Have you got the readings
Sunlight slanting to the floor where the puppies sleep
Who’s going to unlock the church for the flowers
Who wants a breath mint. Are we ready to go

I’m glad we’re having a Mass. Fr. Ron is so good
Mostly waiting. Coat and tie, Sunday shoes

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                               Everybody’s Subversive Now

Speaking truth to power my truth your truth
Interrogating the great reset iconic
The Davos crowd the world economic forum
Break the rules no wrong answers deep state disruptive
Buzzwords without borders globalist power
Synod on synodality
Social media toolkit inclusive
Sustainable neocolonial
Decolonise postcolonialism
Finding your voice authentic community

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                       Who is this Stranger?

Who is this stranger sitting beside me
On the road from one place to another
A nephew who in the long ago
Was my partner in Dark Tower and chess

He is a grown man now, balding a bit
Who wants to save my soul from damnation
A religion he invented last year
He’s got a website; I could look it up

As a boy he was so good at chess
As a man he can’t sort out all the pieces

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                  A Raggedy Old Friend

The day at work was rotten and the news was bad
The someone you hoped would ‘phone was silent
And your call reached only a plastic voice
Which seemed to disapprove of you anyway

But when you step out of the shower
An old friend waits for you – that ragged old robe
That everyone says you need to throw away
As if a cottony hug could ever be disposable

Your bathrobe hugs you like the friend it is
And tells you that everything will be okay

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                 Put Down the Rosary and Step Away from It

           Police interrupted a Catholic mass in Australia on Thursday
          after they received a tip that some parishioners may be
          violating a COVID-19 mask mandate

          -Police stop church service to make sure parishioners are
           wearing masks (msn.com)

Police have bravely raided a church in Perth
Some old folks at prayer on a Thursday night
Acting on a serpent’s tip (for what that’s worth)
Thus giving the wicked a righteous fright

Advance, Australia, thou land of the free!
Where prayerful insolence will be suppressed
And by the way, how much was the Judas-fee?
(Thirty Woolworth’s gift cards?)
We would want a snake to have only the best

One doubts this was only about some masks
What other reasons might there be? one asks

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                                    Ice in February

There is the fireplace, warm with summer oak
But you are not here to share it with me
There is the coffee *** – or I could brew tea
But you are not here to share it with me

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                   My Songs are off Spotify

I’m going to take my songs off Spotify
Not that I know what Spotify might be
Or that I have any songs to take away
Only that it seems to be a thing these days

I want to be censured by Republicans
Not that Republicans know what they might be
Or that they ever notice me at all
Only that it seems to be a thing these days

I want to think today and pray for you -
Now those are exactly the things to do!

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                  Because It Looks Like a Lab Specimen

Some suggested that a cup of green tea
Would be a help for whatever ails ya
But I must say that it looks like P
So in that, at least, it really fails ya

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                       Swastikas over Ottawa

            I am not anti-American. But I am strongly pro-Canadian.

                                          -John Diefenbaker

Dear Canada, your home and native land
Has been an inspiration to the world
Your wise and happy Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Is a blessing you have shared with all

Dear Canada, who has now ordered you
To permit foul banners of obscene hate
To scream obscenities at each other
To desecrate the memorials of your peoples

In sum, Dear Canada –
Why in the hell are some of you acting like Yanks?

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                             Picking up a Box at the Nursing Home

In a cardboard box: a Rosary, glasses
A change of clothes, a pair of shoes, some socks
The miscellaneous bits and bobs of life
At the end of it

The nurses’ aide says she will pray for him
And probably she will; she seems nice
And truly everyone has been nice but now
It’s time to go

Some of the staff are on a cigarette break
On picnic benches out front – life goes on

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     ­        Shouting Out Disease

                                     “I want no more thinking!”

                                     -Henry II to his barons in Becket

Soap for washing hands is not Republican
Eyeglasses never claim to be Democrat
Toothbrushes cannot be Communist plots
Antibiotics are not **** schemes

A pressure bandage has no Socialist leanings
Shampoo is not an expression of Fascism
Antihistamines never speak of the Falange
And nose drops never sing “The East is Red”

But when the topic of the Covid comes up
The flags are unfurled and the chanting begins

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                     Pam from The Office Goes to War

A young woman drills with a wooden rifle
She looks like Pam Beesly from The Office
An old man checks his antique shotgun’s breech
He looks like Grandpa going out for rabbits

The Ukraine is preparing for war

In a bunker a young man cuddles a cat
He looks like he should be driving a truck
An old woman practices field medicine
She looks like she’s done this before

The Ukraine is preparing for war

They all may die under Russian tank treads
Their government will watch on television

(For that’s how our leaders prepare for war)

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                 When the Ambulance Arrived

When the ambulance arrived the medics
Pushing and pulling the gurney in and out
Knocked the latch from the jamb, which no one noticed
But later someone else found the door open

I walked across the road with a bag of tools
And fixed the latch with a couple of screws
Easily enough, a wooden door that opened
To Christmases and homecomings and life

The door is now secure, but I don’t think
The owner will ever walk through it again

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     Remembering Rod McKuen

But of course some are vituperative – they aren’t him
The young still read his books, discreetly now
Because he isn’t cool in this unhappy time
The old still read his books – he saved their youth

But of course some are vituperative – they aren’t you
The young will read your books someday and know
That you have captured on paper their lives
And they will give their hearts freely to you

I hear that you are thinking of giving up poetry
You shouldn’t, you know – because while it is true
That you have a gift, you should always remember
That you are a gift, and the young need you

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

             Loved Expressed Through Committee Assignments

Do people really love each other today
Or do they negotiate partnering
As if falling in love, or out again
Requires codicils and signatures

Is a rumpled sheet evidence of passion
Or that the party of the second part
Neglected to observe the laundry schedule
Worked out in the last committee meeting

No

There is love
When one hand shyly reaches out to another

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     ­                  No

When you say no
To a baby or a dachshund
Someone’s feelings are hurt
So you pick up the baby or the dachshund
And apologize
Which doesn’t make sense
Because sometimes no
Is what needs to be said
But still it hurts
Even though you say

I’m sorry

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     The Shooter Possessed

He clutches his demonic delusions
While yelping out his programmed three-beat chants
In a closed loop of mindless obedience
Celebrating the poison fed to him

He clutches his envies and resentments
Until they explode from his magic gun -
When vanities collapse in blood and smoke
And he is abandoned, a howling soul

He clutches at his weeping concrete blocks
While those who sent him clutch their single-malt

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                             WORDLE for Dullards Like Me


E A G L E

X A X X X

B A D G E

X A X X X

L A T C H

X A X X X

H A R M S

X A X X X

M A T E R

X A X X X

H A I R S

X A X X X

R A T S S

NOT IN WORD LIST

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                  Be Still, and Bring Your Attention to Your Breath

And so we find ourselves obeying a watch:
Be still, and bring your attention to your breath
We do, and watch an aquamarine lotus
Glowing and growing and pulsing before our eyes

Now inhale

And ponder the mysteries of respirations
Breathe in the air that was always here
From Creation until now and beyond
A mystic stream through all living things

And exhale

Giving back to all that which was given
Knowing that it will be enriched and returned

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                        No Revolution Today, Thank You

Sure, I miss standing in formation at dawn
The quick inspection and loud verbal abuse
Rushing through a steel-tray breakfast in rows
And marching to the rifle range in rows

Sure, I miss formation in the dawn of life
Slinging a rifle over my skinny shoulder
Thrilling to “BATTALION! PASS IN REVIEW!
RIGHT SHOULDER ARMS, AND PASS IN REVIEW!”
As did my fathers back to the Civil War

But that was what I did, not who I was -
I took an oath to the Constitution

And not to some fat slob who needs a shave

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                      So was I Born to Wear a Slogan Tee?

So was I born to wear a slogan tee
Or an influencer’s autographed g-strings?
Is this why the Lord God created me -
To be a follower, a buyer of things?

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

         Our Dreams are Lost Somewhere along the Supply Chain

I needed a dream but I wasn’t given one
So I had to construct it for myself
It wasn’t very good. Dreams should be left
To the professionals, but where are they?

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

               Whatever Happened to all our Little Notebooks?

We all saw the same old bumper sticker:
This is not a rehearsal; this is your life
And so we carried little notebooks around
Discreetly jotting down the overheards

In coffee shops and class, the mid-night shift
The bus to work, the elevator up
The escalator down, the line at the bank
For the poems or plays or novels we’d write

The cafeteria was a notebook itself
Between the salad and dessert we fell in love

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                    What Awakened You?

The bedside clock glows an hour you cannot read
Because your eyes of full of fuzzy sleep
And your mind of half-remembered dreams
Of a better time when – but it’s slipped away

Moonlight and moonshadows silver the silence
You went to sleep in a different world
And woke up in this one – is it the same?
At magic o’clock this one seems more real

What woke you up? A breath, a sigh, a song?
What woke you up? Maybe it was love

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                  Who Betrayed Anne Frank?

A spokesman for the F.B.I.
Notes that Jewish hostages were taken
At a synagogue on Shabbos
And concludes that the attack

“Was not specifically related
To the Jewish community”

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                               Rod McKuen at a Garage Sale

We don’t know who Baby ****** and Tommie were
They sent each other notes and underlines
And colored slips of paper from page to page
In Someone’s Shadow (“Hardbacks 25 Cents”)

The exuberance of adolescent arcs
Reminds us of our long-ago callow youth
When we thought we had discovered something
In secretly sharing free verse in home room

And we had – indulging in forbidden lines
Is still good therapy for being sixteen

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                           Rubik’s Cubicle

When a problem is solved, another spins ‘round
When that problem is solved, two others spin back
When those problems are solved, chaos begins
Everything depends on everything else

When a date is set, another unsets
When that date is set, two others get lot
When those dates are found, chaos begins
Everyone depends on everyone else

A wise man learns that chaos begins
When the Rubik’s cube of life backspins

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                    Butch and Sundance: The Latest Remake

                      Union Pacific: Train Robberies Up 356%...
                                           -News Item

Narrator, old cowboy geezer sitting on the porch and smoking his pipe:

Well, now, Butch and Sundance (I’ll tell you no lies)
Stop the U.P. right in its trackages
And glaring at the passengers one of ‘em cries:
“All y’all hand over yer Amazon packages!”

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                        Aspirin as One of the Basic Food Groups

An inhaler for each wheezery lung
Aspirin for the pain that has gone to my head
Gargle for the gunk that’s coating my tongue
Green slime by the cup when I go to bed

Whatever it’s all from – dust, must, or mold
I just wanna be rid of this miserable cold!

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                         A Little Lady Smoking a Big Cigar

              In the drive-through line at Jenny’s Fried Chicken

Middle-aged, petite, wearing a pixie-cut
Dangly earrings and old blue overalls
And a frown on her face, she left her car
And walked around it disapprovingly

Her inspection complete, she stepped back in
But she still wasn’t happy with the world
Given the defiant angle of her cigar
A ****** against all importunities

Her smoke was a warning to all: you’d best keep clear
And I don’t know why (I didn’t dare ask)

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                            An Electric Light Bulb

An electric light bulb is a marvelous thing
A globe of glass and gas and wires within
You can almost hear the filaments sing
When light upon a page lets your reading begin

By what magic does this wonderful device
Receive invisible aethers from long wires
This strange glowing pearl beyond any price
As it relights from Sol its little fires

An electric light bulb is a poet’s delight
Framing pentameter all through the night

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                   Even So, Someone’s Got to Milk the Cows

           U.S. Covid-19 Cases Set to Triple Pre-Omicron Record

                          -Wall Street Journal, 10 January 2022

The pharmacies have no more Covid tests
The supermarkets no paper for the loo
The people feel that masks and jabs are jests
The government replays each Fauci-boo-boo

The Qanons tell us it’s just the ‘flu
The sheeple, they say, are easily led
Others that horse paste is the thing to do
The hospitals haven’t another bed

The cynics assure us we have nothing to dread
But some use their stimulus checks to bury their dead

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                      Looking Back on the Day

Looking back on the day – did I give thanks?
I lazed over my coffee and the morning news
Noted the crows and the morning’s light frost
But that’s not good enough

I washed the dishes and a load of clothes
Looked into a novel and a poetry book
Sorted laundry and fed the squirrels and birds
And that’s not good enough

One give thanks for another day of life
By making that day what it should be

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     ­     No, Mr. Sandburg

The fog doesn’t come on little cat feet
It stinks and slinks across the fields
Maybe Grendel creeps within it -
He wants to eat us before dawn

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

              The Great Canadian Dairy / Diary Dispute of 2022

         "Canada must now do the right thing and come into full
           compliance with its obligations on diary [sic].”

   Brady: Canadian Dairy Dispute Settlement Achieved Thanks to
  USMCA’s Improved Enforcement | U.S. House of Representatives

How many nights have Americans lost sleep
Through fear and righteous anger that in the darkness
An illegal liter of perfidious Canadian milk
Might sneak across the 49th Parallel

The lights burn late in the Pentagon tonight
While border guards watch the wicked north
Lest a stick of malicious Canadian butter
Attempt to overthrow our Constitution

We watch all our borders constantly now
Against Canadians hiding in a Trojan cow

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                                 I Have No Words

The commentator
Says she has no words, and so
She writes a paragraph

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                       Anticipating a Root Canal Tomorrow

Sometimes you don’t need anesthetics to be goofy -
Anticipating a trip to the dentist will do
To confuse today’s plans into nothingness
And scatter all focus from a favorite book

People have such dentistry every day
You tell yourself, only your self is not listening
Should I go to bed early, or get up late
What will it be like in The Chair tomorrow?

A sigh, a whisper, a desperate wheeze –
Just a little more nitrous oxide, please!

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                            A Snow Globe and a Discarded Child

A dreaming child peers into a little glass dome
Where snow falls upon a tiny world:
A mountain, a forest, a tunnel, a village, a train
A kingdom where there is safety and love

He cradles it in his hand lest it be lost
Among the emotional wreckage of lying adults
Cold pizza, unexplained screams from the other room
300 channels of satellite tv

A beaten child peers into that magic dome
And wishes that somehow it might be his home

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                                    Overserved

                                            New Year’s Eve 2021

Oh, TV guy, we most clearly observed
That in your speech you swiveled and swerved
But in the dawn’s clear light you’re now unnerved
An apology, yes, that’s well deserved
But please don’t tell us you were overserved