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

                               I Don’t Miss Working on the Farm

The hay balers are out early in the fields
Headlights outshining late September stars
The din of diesel engines shaking the world
I don’t miss working on the farm at all

The operator smoking a cigarette
While his sunburnt old hands wrestle the machine
His khakis and chambray shirt already wet
I don’t miss working on the farm at all

Yep, laboring in the fields from can ‘til can’t -
I don’t miss working on the farm at all

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

                           Is William Shatner Going to Deliver
                              my Overdue Book from Amazon?

-William Shatner is reportedly going to space in Jeff Bezos’ civilian space rocket | The Independent

Shipped with USPS Now expected
September 24 - September 25
We’re very sorry your delivery
is late. Most late packages arrive in a day.
If you have not received your package by
September 25, you can come back here
the next day for a refund or replacement.
Tracking ID: 9341989671004370746008
Wednesday, September 22 2:37 AM
Package left an Amazon facility.
Humble, TEXAS US 12:58 AM
Package left the carrier facility.
Humble, TX US Tuesday, September 21
11:30 AM Package arrived
at an Amazon facility. Humble, TEXAS US
Carrier picked up the package.
Times are shown in the local timezone.

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

                                           Enter a Password

Your password must consist of at least nine
letters and three numbers three of the letters
must be capitalized and two must be
underlined however while one of the
capital letters may be underlined
the other underlining or underlinings
must be small letters but none of the numbers
is to be underlined you must include
at least one specialty key but no more
than four and the password must not be entered
under a full moon or within three days
of Michaelmas either way we’re sorry
your time has expired please exit this window
and then re-submit but not the same password
you entered before

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

                       An Hour with Dachshunds and Keats

The first day of autumn – surprisingly cool
In this almost tropical latitude
So after a day of working outside
I sat with Keats before a brushy fire

As is my custom I read his “Ode to Autumn”
With a tumbler of – lemonade – to hand
While the little fire sang its own kind of song
And the dachshunds snuffled among the leaves

The first day of autumn – surprisingly cool
And in her rising the Evening Star blesses us

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

                     “Lawrence’s Apple Watch is Fully Charged”

Oh, sure, the MePhone is pleased to say that now
But long before the day spins down the watch
Percentages add up to little and so
I must find the magnetic sticky thing

The charger and the watch embrace with passion
You can almost see the electricity
That sparks their one-ness and their holy bond
Leaving my wrist empty and timeless for a time

“Lawrence’s Apple Watch is fully charged”
But reluctant to leave its charger for long

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

                  My Garage Sale One-Dollar Mister Spock Clock

All stern he is, in science department blue
Behind the clear face of an old-fashioned clock
An hour hand, a minute hand, a sweep hand too
Orbiting around our wise Mister Spock

Behind his back a motor, made in Taiwan
Powered by a double-A Duracell
Counts the minutes and hours as they drag on
(There is no dilithium fuel cell)

Spock scans for me the starndate, no fuss at all
Always at his post on my office wall

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

      On Teaching Jean Anouilh’s Becket to High School Seniors

Beginning with the film

1st student young person on the roll sheet: “Is that th' pope?”
2nd student young person on the roll sheet: “I’d like to shoot that old pope.”

We have a lot of work ahead of us

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

                                           Love Against Chaos

Chaos - when a child doesn’t have a bed for sleep
Good meals for nourishment, peace every day
Books of her very own to read and keep
Parents and friends, a few toys for play -

But when you make a child safe and warm for the night
And give her breakfast at the family table
Daily lessons for instruction and delight
A few easy chores, as far as she is able

And all in a home ruled with blessings and love
You give that child a happy life
And you give Chaos a shove

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

                                To Oaf Qweepers and Such

In your made-in-China cheap camouflage
A forty-four strapped to each forty-six waist
You fast-food waddle and wheeze along the streets
Waving your Pepe and Confederate flags

Playing at movie soldiers yet again
With other aging oafs in beards and tats
And yelping at people who work for a living
While you parasites just stink up the place

The rest of us are trying to build a nation
So
Get out of the way
Go home
And ****** your director’s cut of *Patton

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

                             The Death of Our Old Hippie Truck Driver

                                      For Brian, of Happy Memory

                     For every star that falls to earth a new one glows.
                     For every dream that fades away a new one grows.

                                                 -Rod McKuen

Suddenly there was cancer eating away
At what was left of his star and his dreams
That second star to the right was suddenly closer
And we can’t know what that far shore is like

But he had often seen the rainbow’s end
Shining across the windshield of his rig
Over his mountains and his magic lands
Interstates according to Peter Max

For years he rolled to the beat of ‘68 -
No more runs, now; his logbook’s up to date

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

         Edgar Allan Poe Takes a Selfie and I Take an Antihistamine

Quoth the critic:
                             No one’s ravin’ y’know
Something about a bird – maybe a crow?
Lenore married a physicist on the go
Plutonium shore, not Plutonian (oh!)

Quoth the critic:
No more her beau
She kept the cage, but gave the bird to Poe
Anyway, the scientist’s name is Moe
She says his nuclear fission makes her glow

Quoth the critic:
Let’s end this show
(Antihistamines – I shoulda said no)
(‘Choo!)

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

                                   For the Good of the Republic

                               To the Caesars and their Generals
        (But not to the Senate; they have made themselves irrelevant)

Illustris:

You have medals and money and country estates
Book deals and bank accounts and pleasure gardens
You can retire in soft luxury now -
Your military contractors have seen to that

The Rubicon is ruby with your soldiers’ blood
And the Tiber is stopped with the loyal dead
Who fell upon your sword-sharp signatures -
And now you conspire against each other

You have done enough; go home to your musicians
Your receptions, your hunting parties, your…wives
You could pray for the dead
But you won’t

Still,

If you love your nation you will not meet
At the Milvian Bridge

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

                                            You are a Solitaire

A generation cannot choose to be lost
Even though many might give up on life
Sulk in self-pity in a crowded space
As if no one ever suffered before

But trust yourself to make a stronger choice
Refuse to be defined except by you
Consider the teachings of the wise, not the loud
And build your life by the standards you set

For after all, you are not a generation -
You are your own creative, industrious self

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

                          Paying the Electric Bill to a Tattooed Arm

In the August-hot, exhaust-fumed drive-through
Summer-sun glare against the window glass
Armored against robbers and customers
Who might want to steal electricity in person

Through the glass one can see a slender arm
And a shift in the light shows it to be
All splotchy in decaying reds, greens, and blues
Seemingly covered in a foul tropical blight

The window slides open to a beautiful smile
The corpse-like arm pushes out
          God
          Beauty
              A receipt

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

                                      The Last Time I saw Dan

It’s only a Denny’s, right? Over on Garth Road
Just off the interstate.  Breakfast with Dan
Years ago now, but the table was still there
Where we drank coffee and I mostly listened

Oh, his body was frail, had been for years
But his mind, oh, that mind, physician and pilot
Philosopher, writer, scientist, raconteur
His thoughts were always far beyond the stars

I thought of him all through my breakfast special
And when I left, patted the vinyl bench
                                               where he had lived

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

                           Camellia Sinensis Dancing

Anyone who bangs on about the nuances
And the complex properties of tea
Loose leaves, filtered water, thermometers
How a slurp is superior to a sip

The low-Prole vulgarity of teabags
Assessing the full body of the tea
Then teasing out the flavour of the tea
(Camellia Sinensis dancing a striptease?)

Is a barbarian.
                         Just pour me out
A good cuppa char from the old Brown Betty

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

                  Saint Augustine’s Stolen Apples, My Dead ‘Possum

Saint Augustine reflected on the sins of his youth
The stolen apples especially bothered him
In his life-long penance and his quest for truth
That memory, somehow, was especially grim

As for me I remember a long-ago night
When I flung a dead ‘possum at Miss Cates’ door
I know that such a thing just isn’t right
But she was mean and old (maybe twenty-four)

Saint Augustine’s sins hung about him like weights
And I –
I don’t feel bad about tormenting Miss Cates!

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

                                 Searching September for You

Everyone writes poems about September
That month which serves as a hinge to each year
Tired summer collapsing into cool autumn
A new term and new terms on the quarter-day

I remember walking in the fields with you
And holding hands among the stubbled crops
While you sang to me and our changing world -
You were the joy of golden Michaelmas-time

And though all those Septembers have flown away
Whenever I pass a field
                                                   I look for you

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

                          General Robert E. Lee Stands Down

                                       Richmond, Virginia
                                        8 September 2021

Today his statue will be lifted down
And broken up to be museumed somewhere
Beyond the roar of cannon and musketry
Beyond the hiss of tear gas and abuse

The most sentimental mythologies
Might be the worst: moonlight and magnolias
And sweet old songs softening and perfuming
The memories of ****** chains and whips

Let us hope that the plinth is left intact -
For a new statue, a universal pact

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

                   If This Were Kabul We’d Call It Nation Building

           At Least 6 Killed, 56 Wounded In Chicago Labor Day
                                    Weekend Gun Violence

                                            -CBS 2 Chicago

Maybe one of the civilized nations
Will send us aid: food packages, nylons
Chocolate for the children, used clothing
Cigarettes for the old men, can openers

Maybe one of the civilized nations
Will send their young soldiers to guard our streets
And missionaries to teach us the Bible
And volunteer nurses to teach us hygiene

Maybe one of the civilized nations
Will pity us, and make us a protectorate


(From a reminder by Anthony Germain)

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

             Cognitive Dissonance by Order of Higher Authority

                 The greatest evil is…conceived and ordered (moved,
                  seconded, carried,  and minuted) in clean, carpeted,
                   warmed and well-lighted offices…

                -C. S Lewis, Preface to The Screwtape Letters

It is illogical to determine
That a class of humans must not be human
And so not only may this class be destroyed
But must be destroyed for some sort of cause

It is illogical to determine
That some should be ashes or specimens in jars
Quivering ****** lumps flung into fires
Or into bags labeled “Medical Waste”

It is illogical to determine
Who may live, and who must be
                                                                medically served

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

                      A Meditation on Caspar David Friedrich’s
                                   “Wanderer above the Mist”

For victory alone he chooses to exist
He takes a triumphant and well-earned breath
But what if that wanderer above the mist
Slips on a banana peel to his death!

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

                                No Surrender to Viruses or Fools

                               My head is ******, but unbowed

                                            -Henley, “Invictus”

We planned to build in peace a better world
With hands and tools and minds and arts and sweat
A home and bed for every little child
With love and peace around each family’s hearth

But now we daily read the deaths of friends

Futility is wormed into our hopes
By fatal vapors coursing through the air
Adrift on breathy particles, scornful
Of everything we’ve worked for all out lives

For still we daily read the deaths of friends

Some of us blame each other, or just give up
And wallow in despair, but not you and I

Let’s help each other - we’ve got a world to build

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

         The© Happy™ Home© Akku-Rite™ OTC Covid-1 Test©

The picture on the box features a couple
Cuddling cutely in domestic bliss
As they poke the swabs way up each other’s nose
(Oh, don’t be scandalized; they’re married, of course!)

These and other fine products are distributed by
Consolidated HelthKare Medical, Inc.
Makers of the Kut-Kut© Home Vasectomy Kit
And
Ol’ Doc Zeke’s™ Happy Mule© Diarrhea Remedy™

Ol’ Doc Zeke’s™ Happy Mule© Diarrhea Remedy™
Is not approved for use in humans (wink, wink)

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

                               Liberation Begins with our Minds

At lunch today, or during a coffee break
We could switch the break room radio on
To the voices of someone else’s America
Demagogues yelling at us what to think

Or we could open that ancient paperback
Held together with tape and rubber bands
And continue Saint Augustine’s Confessions
Which we began in our younger, happier days

Eternal words, and not some Leader’s noise
Because you and I are not trapped in time

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

                                     ­         Communities

We often read about communities:

The intelligence community
The black community
The LGBT community
The arts community

Communities

The Hispanic community
The white community
The evangelical community
The educational community

Communities

One imagines a community:
Volunteer fire department, VFW
Parks, shops, a Methodist church across the street
From Our Lady of Guadalupe

Communities

But communities seem mostly to be
Lonely people stereotyping others
On the InterGossip with big ol’ words

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

                       “I Guess You Saw a Lot of Action, Huh?”

Don’t

You and I weren’t there; it’s none of our business
They will talk about it among themselves
Politely excluding us, as they should
Mostly each will grapple with it in the dark

Alone

You and I weren’t there; it’s none of our business
They might become more open when they are old
When God speaks to them from the desert and plain
But the decision is theirs; it is their pain

Theirs

You and I weren’t there; it’s none of our business
Don’t ask
Don’t even speak
Just leave it alone

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

                        The Man Can Execute a Snappy Salute

By God, the man can execute a snappy salute
Though he never made the first day of boot camp
Maybe he learned to salute from watching Patton
Or John Wayne movies, over and over

By God, the man can execute a snappy salute
Even while propped up by his briefcase boys
Showing off his practiced thousand-yard stare
While thirteen flag-covered coffins are carried by

By God, the man can execute a snappy salute -
And the brave young people who trusted him

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

                  Why Does Saint Augustine Have Two Feast Days?

                                “Take it and read, take it and read.”

                                   -Saint Augustine, Confessions

                             Trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin, Penguin Classics

Why does Saint Augustine have two feast days?
Because he speaks to both the East and West
A little child still says it to us twice
“Take it and read, take it and read.”
                                                                ­   We should listen

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

                         We All Dream of Our Own Library Someday

                               If you have a garden and a library,
                                  you have everything you need.

                             -attributed to Marcus Tullius Cicero
                                   Ad Familiares, Letter IV to Varro


We all dream of our own library someday
Shelf after shelf of finely bound editions
An oak-paneled room with a stone fireplace
And French windows that open to the sea

We all dream of our own library someday
A handsome wooden table instead of a desk
Lamplight and candlelight that fall upon
The open pages of a Russian poet

We all dream of our own library someday -
For now, a back-pack paperback must do

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

                              An Old Man Clinging to a Microphone

                          Those he commands move only in command,
                          Nothing in love…

                                             -Macbeth V.ii.19-20

An old man bowed his head, maybe in prayer
Asking forgiveness for the massacre of innocents
Or maybe he was sorry only for himself
Because no one liked him anymore

His speech was as fragmented as the dead
He gobbled out words, poor scripted cliches’
Those in attendance felt little for him -
Pity, yes, and surely something of fear

For no one dared ask him, as he shuffled away,
“Mr. President, will you please resign today?”

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

                                       “Gifted” is not a Verb

                                         “Stop it. Just stop it.”

                                                -Bob Newhart

A gift is given, not gifted
“Give” is the given action verb
Let not your strong usage be shifted -
Just dump the fashions at the curb

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

                      Noah Sends out Another Dove Today

                           Some other land, some other sea

                                         -Cavafy, “The City”

If Noah were to release that dove today
It would fall along with the olive branch
Along with all hope, blasted out of the sky
Its ****** feathers fluttering to earth

Among refugees who haven’t the right papers

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

                                 Boxes are for FedEx

You don’t want to hear about my boxes
I don’t much care much about your boxes
Boxes are for FedEx. And birthday gifts
Good Comrades check boxes;
                                                poets create
Beauty among the chaos

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

                                   Absent Friends and Failing Light

We all have lists of absent friends
Who were with us one week and Covid the next
With unfinished stories and little jokes
We meant to tell each other the next time we met

The very picture of health, we say to ourselves
Shooting a few hoops (“Yeah, I still got it!”)
Washing the pickup, coffee after Mass
Merriment – but then a note – in failing light

Life is shadowy, seen through a dark, dark lens
We all have lists of absent friends

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

                                The Critics not Taken

Everyone says we’re reading the poem all wrong -
“The Road not Taken” is about Edward Thomas
Joining the army or Robert Frost not
And why is one road less traveled and is that good?

Is it bad? And why is the wood yellow?
Who is prolonging the decision, and why?
Maybe the road not taken should be
Quoting it at every high school graduation

We’ve heard it so often that we want to say:
Just make a decision then go away!

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

                       A Laser Focus on Screaming Deaths

               Look upon my Works, ye Mighty, and despair

                               -Shelley, “Ozymandias”

Laser focus laser focus laser
Focus laser focus laser focus
Laser focus teens falling to their deaths
Laser focus escape for two thousand dollars

Laser focus or a promissory note
If the enemy overrun the airport
We’ll laser focus your refund back to you
With this laser focus degree of precision  

Shredded body in the laser focus
Of the wheel well

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

           Floyd Makes a Bomb Threat at the Library of Congress

No one imagines a bomber encountering
A congressman anywhere near a library
No one imagines Brother Floyd encountering
A dentist

Suspicious vehicle near Library of Congress; US Capitol Police | khou.com

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

On the Occasion of Being Scanned by an Electro-Mechanical Device

The room is softly lit, like a Star Trek Set
Mostly pale, indirect blues, occasional pinks
A large circle, like a mechanical god
Appears to be a portal spinning through time

DO NOT LOOK INTO THE RED LIGHT

The machine slides me into itself
And commands me in a soothing plastic voice
“Take a deep breath and hold it.”
[Pause]

DO NOT LOOK INTO THE RED LIGHT

“Breathe normally.”
[Pause]
“Take a deep breath and hold it.”
[Pause]

“Breath normally.”

DO NOT LOOK INTO THE RED LIGHT

But breathe

Breathe

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

                      Signs not Found in High School Locker Rooms

There is no I in eye.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take except in the “Hi, Bob!” thing, in which case maybe you should.

When the going gets tough, the tough think of logical alternatives.

We’re Number Ten!

Through these doors walk unhappy kids whose parents are re-living their youthful disappointments through their children.

That which does not **** you lowers your resistance to disease.

Pain is just weakness traveling to a lifetime of bone and joint clinic visits.

Shoot for the moon – if you miss you’ll fall screaming to your death.

Starving children working in contract sweat shops to make licensed team gear aren’t interested in your motivation.

And let’s be real – failure is always an option.

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

                                         Ode on a Coffee Urn

                             If Keats Took His Morning Coffee
                         at Hub City Diner in Lafayette, Louisiana

Thou stainless steel bride of the day’s pale dawn
Thou foster-child of all our morning hopes
Patient historian who writes upon
The pages of our lives optimistic tropes:

What die-cut label hangs about thy shape
Of morning blends or sometimes darker roasts
From Jamaica’s Blue Mountain, or some further scape
Perhaps above Colombia’s green coasts

What men or gods are these who at Hub City can say
“What wonderful coffee for beginning the day!”

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

The Lone Ranger Masks Again

When I was a boy I wore my Lone Ranger mask
I even wore my Lone Ranger mask to school
Where mean ol’ Miz Griggs made me take it off
But now I may (as opposed to “can”) wear my mask

Indeed, I must wear a mask, and so, ha!
Ya can’t make me take it off now, Miz Griggs!
I can wear my Lone Ranger mask, so boo-hoo!
Me and the Lone Ranger, we ride again!

Only…the problem is…I’m not in school

Rats

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

                                     ­        The Mild Geese

The abbey geese, for reasons of their own
Waddled up from the pond and onto the lawn
To mingle with the habited brothers
After the midday Mass

Fr. R looked out, a bit cranky that day
And spoke with Benedictine clarity:

“White geese.”

“Black geese.”

“All geese.”

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

                                   The Bowre of Blisse

               Goodly it was enclos’ed rownd about,
               As well their entered guests to keep within,
               As those unruly beasts to hold without;
               Yet was the fence thereof but weake and thin

            -Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book II, Canto XII

While much of the world is bleeding and burnt
Democracy takes a summer holiday
Far away in Maryland’s gentle woods and hills
Where the screams of tortured children cannot be heard

Among the gardened and guarded streams and trees
Elderly men are guided in their play
By smiling minders gentle in their words
And ready with the proper remedies

While those who code are kept carefully near
To sweeten the words the old gentlemen hear

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

                   Yet Another White Sahib Dismisses the Dead

             "This is not abandonment; this is not an evacuation.”

         -State Department Spokesman Ned Price, 12 August 2021

While Afghan heads, like American guarantees
Roll in the dust of Kandahar’s grim streets
Our diplomats demonstrate their expertise
Executing again their skillful retreats

An elegant man at a microphone
Unctuously soothing the doubtful press
Denies that our client state has been overthrown
In a futile game of colonial chess

The dead cannot argue what Ned Price might say -
It seems their blood has blotted his resume

['Not an Evacuation,' Insists State Department as Pentagon Sends 3,000 Troops to Evacuate U.S. Personnel by Spencer Brown (townhall.com)]

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

                                  A Single Tear from a Child

                               “I respectfully return my ticket”

                              -Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov

Children

Are ill-prepared to fall into this world
Naked and cold and wet at birth, and then
Flung into a series of awkward situations
Many of them involving pain and fear

Children

Are ill-prepared to live within this world
Isolated from the stars and each other
Trying to fit mythologies in place
Maybe it’s that old Garden of Eden thing

Children

Are ill-prepared to leave this shadowy world
Unlike Ivan, though, they have kept their tickets

Respectfully

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

                    Worm Tunneling Through a Time Hole

Flailing through time and wobbling back again
The Chinese navy rules five of seven seas
Ol’ Preacher on the watch-‘phone yells about sin
Father knows worstest in his cartoon tees

Failing through time and wobbling back again
The 1950s marshal rides in HD
America’s Dad is convicted of sin
Hey, sailor boy, buy me a Saigon tea

Falling through time and wobbling back again
Ol’ Preacher needs to tuck his shirttail in

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

                                                Red, Red Wasps

Some sing of red, red wine, but here I sing
Of red, red wasps, who do not sing of me
I loathe and fear them for their vicious sting -
I aerosol their nest, and then I flee!

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

                                Abraham Lincoln and Macbeth

                           After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well

                                              -Macbeth III.ii.23

To imagine a modern president
Having a favorite Shakespearean play
Is not to imagine a president at all

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

                           The Emperor’s New Kafka

When an insect woke up one morning he found
Himself changed into a politician
And thus gatekeeper to Das Schloss, key clam
Through whom all arrival applications must pass

All shipping boxes to be checked for ticks
In a village that cannot be surveyed
Unescorted thinkers may not be seated
At corner tables in the Herrenhof

Many are desperate to be admitted
But few are desperate to be committed