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

                                               The Metternich System

Like Metternich
We seem to be shoring up crumbling institutions
Institutions that have no use for us:
Heavy-lipped Habsburgs, an ossified Church

Like Metternich
We ask if the revolutionaries have permission
To ****** each other for the Goddess Reason
While princes and oligarchs flee for their lives

Like Metternich
We wonder if Napoleon won after all

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

                                A Metternichian State of Repose
                                in a Concert of Leaves and Light

Up before dawn and out among the quiet
Concelebrating with God the leafy light
That falls as blessing upon the lawn’s soft turns
From grey to gold to green to springing life

And then from meditation to liturgy
The Opus Dei of Saturday mornings
With rake and shovel and fire against the litter
That shoals into corners and along the fence

The feeblest remembrance of God’s mighty hand
Shaping chaos into order and meaning