Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
“Civil Penalties
for Mailing Anything Dangerous”
…our children will be ashamed…
remembering
how in so strange a time
common
integrity could look like courage
-Yevtushenko, “Talk,” in Selected Poems: Yevtushenko
The postmistress chants this as part of her list to us
Whenever a citizen sends a package by postal bus:
Civil penalties for mailing anything dangerous
Firearms, fireworks, a radioactive truss
Air bags - and why mail one? (just an aside)
Poisons, perishables, formaldehyde
The cremated ashes of your cousin Clyde
Or anything else on the weirdo side
Logical enough
But in these fearful days, under our mad regime
Mailing even a thoughtful letter is a dangerous scheme
