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 Nov 2022 Wk kortas
Lawrence Hall
Lawrence Hall   Poems  

1d
The Weight of a Rifle
The Weight of a Rifle

                 I had quite forgotten the weight of a rifle.

                -C. S. Lewis to his brother, 11 August 1940,
                         upon joining the Home Guard

Despite the cold and the morning mist
Some of the fellows reported wild boars
Up against the tree line across the fields
So with my old rifle I took a walk

I found their feral diggings and rootings
And stood and listened to the autumn winds
Sighing in the tree tops, but there were no hogs
Robert Frost could have made something of it

I marched for miles in my merry youth
Laughing and singing by squad and company
M-14 rifles slung over our skinny shoulders
Our government thought this was a good idea

I found some bright-red holly-berries this morning
Which was more fun than shooting at hogs

Or at other men

Letters of C. S. Lewis, ed. W. H. Lewis, Harvest / HBJ, San Diego, 1966
Feral Hogs Attack and **** a Woman in Texas - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
 Oct 2022 Wk kortas
Evan Stephens
Hundreds of yesterdays erupt like starlings
from the papered heads of trees.

Pumpkin flesh scent on fingertips:
another happy hour come and gone,

flashing lips that meet and fold,
eyes like inverted tusks.

So I seep over the tile like wine
combed to froth by headstone teeth.

They all have hidden hearts
that swim in the lacking pool.

They all clench you close
& breathe your air,

trying to dig up the root
for their private pestles.

No - no! Never that.
I walk the night wood,

where hundreds of yesterdays
roost out of touch.
 Oct 2022 Wk kortas
Lawrence Hall
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                 Flying to London on Nitrous Oxide

                                              For Dr. Armstrong

Doctor A. dropped a black cloth over my eyes
As if I were facing a firing squad in a vinyl chair
An uncomfortable vinyl chair
The firing squad is not in the chair; I am

How silly to think of a firing squad in a vinyl chair I mean how would they all fit, eh

I give the finger to an oxygen thingie
And air is piped into my itchy nose
scratch scratch
“I’m turning the nitrous on now, just let me know…”
What shall I think about during dentistry…?

A holiday in London long ago
I’m walking along crowded Oxford Street
A motor-scooter cop is writing a ticket
For a tiny little car that’s double-parked

Across the street is a used-book shop
I want to browse the old Oxford editions
(OUCH!)
But first I’ll find breakfast
I’ll find breakfast
I’ll find breakfast
(oh that one’s only a little ouch)
And what a happy breakfast!
In this little café with windows all steamed
And I find a seat among the shoppers and workers and shoppers and workers and the nice English waitress is from Viet-Nam and I was in Viet-Nam and she is still from Viet-Nam I was only in Viet-Nam and she is very English and writes on a pad eggs and sausages and toast and eggs and sausages and toast and after breakfast I’ll walk across Oxford Street for Oxford Books I can see in the dusty window and the nice English waitress takes my order for eggs and sausages and toast and somehow I never get across Oxford Street to browse the Oxford books because “I’m switching you back to Oxford oxygen now and you’re all done just sit there for a few minutes” and she wipes the drool off my chin and the ordinary air hisses through the nasal cannula and I feel a little fuzzy and I’m not in London and there are no eggs and sausages and toast but yes I can stand now and yes just go see Erin at the front for the paperwork and then I’ll ride in the passenger seat to Jack in the Box for some sort of golly-gee-**** breakfast swaddled in paper and coffee in a paper cup which I will have to chew and swallow on the right because my left is all numb and I’ll dribble on myself and I wish I were in London but I’m not but coffee from Jack in the Box after being NPO after midnight is okay too…
Dentistry
 Oct 2022 Wk kortas
Lawrence Hall
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                 A Poetry Tool Kit and a Small Sack of Concrete Verbs

The sorting trays hold syllables and rhymes
While heavy-duty meter is stowed below
With a chisel and file for shaping rough lines
And wire cutters for merciless editing

Iambs are tightened with the box-end wrench
The ball-peen hammer is a strong accent
A few loose screws might constitute free verse
If they will bother to sort themselves out

At the end of his shift a worthy artisan
Picks up the excess adjectives and adverbs

And burns them
 Oct 2022 Wk kortas
Lawrence Hall
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                            The King is the King by the Grace of God

The King is the King by the Grace of God
Prime ministers are chosen by party caucus
The King reigns in dignity with sceptre and rod
And Parliament is useless and greedy and raucous
 Oct 2022 Wk kortas
Lawrence Hall
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                              General­ Flynn and his Reichskirche

               The Putsch Began at the Spooky Nook Sports Complex

Saint General Flynn demands ein Reichskirche
President Trump fantasizes about prison ****
Marjorie Taylor Green toys with her Jewish space laser
And the Party obsesses on ***** books

Thirty-round magazines and stock-tank baptisms
Rams’ horns, made-in-China Wal-Mart camouflage
Squeezed around fat proud boy oaf-keepers
An unorganized militia of lemmings

Red-capped lemmings channeling QAnon
While waving Bibles and semi-automatics
20,000 ******* marching out of step
Well-armed against sin at the voting booth

Trump!
Trump!
Trump!
Trump!
 Oct 2022 Wk kortas
Carlo C Gomez
Mondays in Van Nuys:
velvet morning, bee stings,
and medicating angels
wrapped in mesh,
at the scene of a fugitive motel,
swimming towards
*** and misery.

Nicotine lizard
fresh from film school,
and his molten young
interceptors
with corduroy legs,
scouting for girls
any way, shape, or form,
pinpointing them
in alphabetical order.

Flashing red light means go:
pretty Eve in the tub,
lit from underneath,
she sun shines,
her back to the prehension
from a survey of hands
and power tools.

No tan lines,
the boundaries of
this celluloid garden
begin at her knees
--a fleshprint,
start the Van de Graaff
and watch as she reels
the far faded whispers
of carnal quicksand.

A smell of peroxide and sweat,
her constant freezing
and thawing
totally crushed out,
the dark don't hide it.

Candy Bar
--it's not her real name,
but she smiles like
she means it,
lying is the most fun a girl
can have without taking
her clothes off.

Once again
the week gets lost in repeat:
a certain smile,
a certain sadness,
look on the bright side,
this isn't happiness.
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