Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
If We Change Channels
All the Pain Will Go Away
Captors are shooting trembling prisoners of war
We can watch them writhing as they die
Screaming silently into our telescreens
American Idol is on 282
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Are We but Obscure
Lines in Ezekiel?
Maybe we are doing time along the Chebar
But we are not in Babylonian captivity
Only in the captivity of our choices:
We fouled our own endeavors, our own lives
We banned and burned our books, our music, our art
Upon the orders of megaphone fuhrers
Sacrificing Truth on their altars of fear
We abandoned duty and found ourselves alone
Dry bones, dry bones in a desert of despair
But, shush – what is that Sound from over there…?
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Whatever Happened
to Clarence Eustace Scrubb?
He
liked books if they were books of information and had pictures of grain
elevators
or
of fat foreign children doing exercises in model schools.
-C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
He was so good at banning ideas that later
They made him a Texas school administrator
Keller ISD to remove challenged books | The Texas
Tribune
(You will of course remember that in Mr. Lewis' wonderful book Scrubb became a fine young man at the end. There is also hope for book banners, book banners, and censorious old biddies of both sexes - may their eyes open soon to the joys of 10,000 years of literature!)
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Strippers Bid to
Unionize in Los Angeles
-news item
To what enormity is this action owed –
Could there be an issue with the strict dress code?
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Veterans’
Cremation Benefits
-Ad on the InterGossip
AMTRACS with gas tanks beneath the floor
White phosphorus grenades gone bad, gone wrong
The Parrot’s Beak burning throughout the night
Napalm, burning flesh, screams, horror, death
A burnt man flailing about in agony
And where the hell is that dust-off now?
Copper sulphate, Sulfamylon, Kerlix, Telfa pads
We know about cremation well enough
But now tell us about our benefits
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Librarian is Your
Fairy Godmother
For Miss Kelly,
Who Captured the Castle
A librarian is your fairy godmother
Who blesses her children with the gift of books
Her magic wand is a date-due stamp
Which just for you she will then ignore
She lives with brave Cassie in Mississippi
And in the greenwood with bold Robin Hood
On Wildcat Island, in Narnia and Middle-Earth -
She sails you there on bean-bag pirate ships
And if you’re nice to others (so please don’t tickle)
There might be a gift of watermelon pickle!
Lawrence Hall, HSG
mhall4618@aol.com
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
After We Shoot the
Traitors Let’s Go for a Hamburger
Th’ devil’s in control; you could look it up
It’s right there in some righteous Christian podcasts
An’ we need to be armed against th’ Left
Like them pizza child molesters and stuff
I got me my AR-15 against them devils
DON’T CALL IT AN ASSAULT RIFLE!!!!!
It’ll blow uh liberal’s head right off
DON’T CALL IT AN ASSAULT RIFLE!!!!!
And this is a REPUBLIC, not a DEMOCRACY!
If they mess up my fry order I’m gonna shoot someone
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Lines Written Upon
the Occasion of the Confiscation of the Former President’s Several Passports,
Which May or May Not Have Happened
A flight risk? No, not that wretched has-been –
No civilized nation would allow him in!
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Hurricane Disaster
Relief Kits
This summer the Bishop of Beaumont is promoting a good
idea and the organizational skills to make it so throughout the diocese: small,
easily transportable plastic bags of needful items for anyone displaced by hurricanes,
fires, tornadoes, or other disasters.
And in this part of the world, all of us have been
displaced, and will be again. Hurricanes and flooding have sent us on the road
or onto the boats, sometimes without a known destination. Some of us have bank
accounts and credit cards and places to go; many don’t. And the places we go or
the places we where we are isolated might not have the systems in place or the
supplies to accomplish transactions. You can’t buy a band-aid or a razor or a
towel if alligators are swimming through the muck where the grocery store used
to be.
Many churches and other service organizations provide
food, cooked when possible and as boxes of field rations when not, portable
shower units, tents, tarps, first-aid, and other necessities for life as refugees.
The bishop’s throw-and-go (No, don’t actually throw it;
you’d hurt someone) bags of non-food (and thus non-perishable) items are
adjuncts, something to be handed out through existing services or by themselves
as necessary. He has asked every family in the diocese to package a standard
but flexible list of items sealed in a waterproof plastic bag to contribute to
disaster relief. These kits are then stored in spaces in churches and
rectories, ready for immediate giveaway to those headed to safety. The list:
One bath towel
Two wash cloths
Three bars of bath soap
One hairbrush
Three disposable razors
One can of shaving cream
Two toothbrushes
One tube of toothpaste
One stick of deodorant
One container of skin lotion
One small general-purpose first-aid kit
One package of ball point pens
One container of multi-purpose anti-bacterial ointment
One small LED flashlight
Many of these items wouldn’t require a new purchase. Most
of us have good old towels and wash clothes that can be freshly laundered and
packed. After all, someone under a bridge trying to get the kid cleaned up
while the storm is blowing isn’t going to be picky about a new label and a
brand name.
If you haven’t got three bars of soap, one would do, or
maybe a couple of those little plastic bottles of shampoo pinched from the
Holiday Inn.
Some things, such as hairbrushes and toothbrushes, ought
to be new. Sure you can boil the germs and boogers and cooties out of them,
but, still, new is better.
I saw one of these throw-and-go kits stocked, but on the
list the first-aid kit notation was lined out and replaced with a box of
band-aids. That’s a practical substitution.
Tiny little flashlights can now be bought cheaply by the
dozen and they are so useful. We have so many illuminated gadgets in our houses
that not until a power failure do we realize how dark the night is for us
diurnal creatures. A flashlight is not only something for helping us see, but
to be seen by – in addition to our voices, difficult to locate in the darkness,
the rescuers can also see a light for determining location.
What shoulda / coulda / woulda been on the list is certainly
a topic for discussion, but a sine qua non is that the distribution and
handling of any one throw-and-go kit shouldn’t require a crew or any strength. Putting these together is something all of us
can do through our churches, volunteer organizations, schools, youth groups,
and businesses.
In a disaster even the best and strongest among us cannot
accomplish all that needs to be done. The little throw-and-go kits are a small contribution
that anyone can make, and make now, before they are needed.
Those who will use them – because there will be hurricanes
and evacuations - won’t know your name, nor will the bishop, but God certainly
will.
-30-
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Steady Diet of
Invaders
“And
the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool
lies here who tried to hustle the East”
-Kipling, “The Decline of the West”
This is the day, they say, that Kabul fell
A year ago - but Kabul did not fall
It’s still there: invaders come, invaders die
Pale British, Russians, and Americans
Afghanistan has eaten all of them
It even devours its own, and gnaws the bones
And all are dust along the Hindu Kush
Where lizards scuttle among imperial dreams
That land where caravans and mystics roam –
Let’s mind our own
business and stay at home
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
.553 / Free to Be
/ Dead, You See
When this weapon blows a child’s head off
Don’t worry about that trifle
For the AR technically
Is not an assault rifle
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Breakfast in
Constantinople
The waitress greeted us in Saint Petersburg
We drank strong coffee in Alexandria
Our omelets were served in Cambridgeshire
As we gossiped in the narthex of Hagia Sophia
We briefly sat in the halls of Congress and idled
And said good morning to Shelley and Keats
We admonished die Rheintochter to behave
themselves
But they ignored us and flirted with some sailors
What fun in table-talk as the day begins -
There’s nothing more joyful than breakfast with friends!
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Rosary of
Childhood Summers
“And summer’s lease hath all too short a date”
-Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
Between infancy and adolescence
Ten summers form a crown of memories
An Eden of bare feet and ice cream bars
That inform the dreams of our after-years
Each day is its own rosary of life
Those works and books and thoughts and ordinary chores
That with their attendant offerings and prayers
Give meaning to the mysteries of life
But we tell best those holy beads of youth
Whose innocent joys began our search for Truth
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Opposite the House
of Sculptures
“…unchanging,
shrill, crazy exclamations and demands, which became progressively more
impractical, meaningless, and unfulfillable…”
-Doctor Zhivago, Part Two, Chapter 13, “Opposite
the House of Sculptures”
O strong man, strong man, Supremo Alpha-Weenie
Please be our Putin, Hitler, or Mussolini
O strong man, strong man; tell us what to think
Pour us some Jim Jones; we’ll take a real deep drink
O strong man, strong man; tell us what to do
We’ll happily go to prison just for you
O strong man, strong man; clench your mighty fist
You put for us the “GO” in your “jingoist”
O strong man, strong man, you are our latest god
Please break us to obedience with your mighty rod
O strong man, strong man, you are our highest law
Whatever dribbles from your mouth we listen in awe
O strong man, strong man, we are your little elves
We promise to stow our history upon the shelves
And never, ever again think for ourselves
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Getting the Cows
Up for the Evening Milking
My brother and I, barefootin’ down the lane
With an apple each, and a stick the cows ignore
A hot dry evening; sure wish there was some rain
I bonked Ol’ Bessie with an apple core
And if Dad saw that I’d sure get a switchin’
He taught us to treat animals fair and right
The late-summer grass gets my legs to itchin’
The milking follows, well into the August night
I’d give up my adventures, the places I’ve been
If I could get the cows up once again
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Prisoner’s
Modest Dream
Some
humorist on parade: “When the war is over…I’m going to buy a German and keep him
the garden and count him.”
-Wodehouse in a German detention camp,
quoted in Frances Donaldson’s P. G. Wodehouse: A
Biography
When this is all over I pray for us
To sit in in my yard in some cheap Wal-Mart chairs
Each of us with a beer and a cigar
We could talk about the joys of fresh air
We could talk about our families and our work
And air-conditioning, and our home addresses
No longer A-43-Upper or B-24-Lower
We could sing about the Day of Jubilee
And give our voices and our lives to God
And there wouldn’t ever be a head count
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Don’t Follow the
Science
“Follow the science” is itself an unscientific expression,
personifying science as a sort of cosmic Boy Scout troop leader or perhaps a
soldier taking the point. It suggests that we should not follow our hearts
(which is just as illogical), our music, our dreams, or anything else except
science personified almost as a deity.
But science is an abstract concept, not a person. The word
comes from “scientia,” Latin for knowledge of all sorts. In our time we have
narrowed the term for the purpose of discovering and proving facts that can be
demonstrated to be valid or invalid [6
Steps of the Scientific Method (thoughtco.com)].
As an example, we humans have designed instruments arbitrarily
marked with numbers for measuring the air temperature for utility. Even so, a
scientist would not say that today’s temperature is 60 degrees Fahrenheit; he
or she would say that at a given time a given thermometer at a given location read
60 degrees Fahrenheit. He might go further and remind us that thermometers
almost never agree with each other. So what is the temperature? Scientifically,
we can’t really know, but even a caveman could tell us if the day feels warm or
cold.
Unfortunately, many humans tend to accept uncritically
almost any allegation to which the label “science” is attached, especially if
that allegation is made via the Orwellian Telescreens seemingly superglued to
our hands. If a piece of information is beamed to us through a little made-in-China
box that lights up and make noises then it must be true, right?
We fancy we have in some way progressed because we believe in
little boxes instead of the Delphic Oracle, but in the event they are only
little boxes.
Even scientists aren’t always scientific; now they name
storms and even attribute agency to them, a form of personification that reminds
us of Greek paganism.
This brings us to the French scientist who posted to the
InterGossip (which is scientific) a photograph (also scientific) allegedly
taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (yes, scientific) and promoted it as a
super-golly-gee-whiz image (scientific)
of Proxima Centauri,
a far-off star.
After a month or so,
the scientist admitted that the picture he promoted as a wonderful bit of science
was in fact not a star but a cross section of a sausage. He said he was only
joking [Scientist
admits 'space telescope' photo is actually chorizo in tasty Twitter prank
(msn.com)].
Follow the science,
right?
When someone says “follow the science” what he almost always
means is that he uncritically believes whatever babble he last read on the
InterGossip. In his small world, “you could research it” means to access whatever
conspiracies are floating around among Orwellian telescreens without ever once
considering the possibility that they might be inaccurate or even impossible – “Q,”
for instance, or Hillary Clinton dismembering children in a pizza parlor, or the
reincarnation of John F. Kennedy Jr. on the Grassy Knoll.
Not so long ago anyone positing such absurdities would have
been laughed out of the conversation; now that we have the science of the
InterGossip beamed through the science of little glowing boxes there are people
who now believe such nonsense and sometimes act on it to the harm of others.
Following the science seems mostly to be a matter of bellowing
thought-denying chants through bullhorns and raising clenched fists at each
other instead of thinking things through and considering all the possibilities
with both clarity and charity.
The six steps of the scientific method constitute a valid
means of examining only those facts which can be evaluated and measured. Science
cannot examine love, flowers, sunsets, a father playing catch with his child, or
old friends playing chess around a fire, and so science, while valid in its own
orbit, is but an incomplete study of Creation. Science itself is not a god, and
we dare not presume to treat it as one.
-30-
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Nicest Funeral
That Never Was
The doors of the church of my long-ago youth
Were locked; I peeked through the glass and saw
Huge Peavey speakers dangling in holy silence
Above where the Altar used to be
When friends arrived we pondered the mystery
Of a man’s reported death and cremation
With obsequies scheduled for Saturday
Yes, said the passer-by we asked about it
A Saturday next month, and so we loosened our ties
And over fingers of Scotch we asked our whys
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
An Active School
Meeting in Progress
A motion to adjourn is always in order
This morning I drove by my old school
A staff meeting was being committed inside
Perpetrating crimes against intelligence
“HELLO MY NAME IS”
10,000
years of civilization?
Doughnuts and foam cups of coffee
“IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE A WILDCAT!”
Or a lion, a tiger, a platypus
The new superintendent loves Jesus
His family, children, and America
Doughnuts and foam cups of coffee
He introduces the motivational speaker
Who loves Jesus, his family, children
America, and unsourced parables
“MAKE THIS THE BEST YEAR EVER! HOO-AH!”
Doughnuts and foam cups of coffee
The coaches sit in the back reading the sports pages
And Campbell’s Texas Football – a point of privilege
English teachers count split infinitives in the program
“LET’S ALL HOLD HANDS AND SING OUR ALMA MATTER [sic]!”
Doughnuts and foam cups of coffee
Generally speaking I’m against the death penalty
I’d make an exception for motivational speakers
It’s for the children
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Sad Old Man on
the Witness Stand
How easy it is to scorn the man we see
Bloated and loud-mouthed, insolent to all
A foul and loathsome tormentor of souls
A false accuser, a treacherous man
And now we see him brought low at last
Sweating and coughing and goggling his eyes
The tormentor now snarling in outrage and fear
His lies and greed and hate turned back on him
A curious thing about this squirming creature:
Maybe in him we see something of ourselves
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Social Security Online
We have suspended electronic access
to your personal information we tried
three times to match the information you provided
with our records but were unable
to do so you may electronic information
again after 24 hours please verify
your personal information again
before trying to use this suspension
will not affect any Social Security benefits
you receive for further assistance please contact
EXIT My Social Security Request
a replacement social security card
we’re sorry we cannot accept online requests
at this time please try again later
you may begin a replacement social security
card request using another online social
may also contact your local office
for other replacement card options DONE
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
If I Win the Lottery
Above all, don’t lie
to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a
point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so
loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to
love.
-Fr.
Zosima in Book II, Chapter 2 of The Brothers Karamazov
If
I win the lottery, which is unlikely
Because
I never buy a ticket, you know
I’m
going to have cases of the Modern Library edition
Of
The Brothers Karamazov shipped to me.
For
the rest of my life I will give copies
To
everyone I meet: men in red plastic caps
Mensheviks,
Bolsheviks, vegetarians
A
lonely soul waiting at the bus stop
Dostoyevsky for everyone
If I win the lottery
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Undocumented Gardening
Last week I
planted my autumn garden
No permits were required
This evening I
dragged hoses in this drought
No reports were assigned
This morning I
freshened the water for the bees
There was no sign-in sheet
And then I used
a machine for cutting weeds
No evaluations
And then while resting
in the leafy shade
I inventoried
the grasses, blade by blade
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Mystery of the
Lunar Month
The reality of the lunar month
A tiny bat jerking and jinking through the dusk
In pursuit of its evening mosquitoes
Beneath a far-up vapor trail
The mystery of the lunar month
Calculated by wise ones in the long ago
With night far gentler than the solar heat
And minds more subtle than the glare of day
Each a mathematical autocrat
(Smoking an after-dinner ziggurat?)
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Curious Events
of 29-30 July 2022
At the gas station I bought a Chinese rocket
And worried that a lottery might fall from the sky
I tucked away the ticket into my pocket
Or tucked my pocket into my ticket – but why?
If mega-millions came crashing down to earth
The date-stamped rocket would serve no need or whim
Exploding numbers would displace the mirth
As Macbeth’s lady wife once said to him
At the gas station I bought the American dream
Which hissed into the sea – and that’s my theme
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Age of the
Clear Plastic Backpack
My school bag was an old Boy Scout knapsack
And in Indo-China I carried my kit
In canvas made in 1944
And on canvas we carried away the dead
As a civilian I carried a briefcase for a time
But a briefcase is like a narrow tie
They both show up on old-movie night
Just right for Tony Randall in the 1950s
I’m back to canvas, but now they make the kids
Carry clear plastic in our war against ourselves
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
There is no Symbolism
in a Flat Tire
There is no symbolism in a flat tire
This morning it was round, and now it is not
Part of it is round, and part of it is flat
Either way, it’s not going anywhere
Not to the movies, or for coffee with a friend
Or to the grocery for that famous loaf of bread
Which through mitosis becomes shopping for a week
And I didn’t know you like asparagus
A tire cannot fly us to the moon with Sinatra
It never could. But Denny’s with you would do
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
April is not the
Cruelest Month – July Is
Across the oily gravel the scrabbling of weary feet
As if life itself were burning in the heat
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The School Superintendent Gives a Speech
You can’t just
throw money at the problems
you have to
think outside the box education
for the 21st
century my door is always open
words have
meanings professional passionate
mission
statement child-centered striving exceptional
make a
difference you can’t just throw money
at the problems
you have to think outside
the box education
for the 21st century
my door is
always open words have meanings
professional
passionate mission statement
child-centered striving
exceptional make a difference
you can’t just
throw money at the problems
you have to
think outside the box education
for the 21st
century my door is always open
words have
meanings professional passionate
mission
statement child-centered striving exceptional
make a
difference you can’t just throw money
at the problems
you have to think outside
the box education
for the 21st century
my door is
always open words have meanings
professional
passionate mission statement
child-centered striving
exceptional make a difference
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Junior
Woodchuck Manual
The Junior Woodchuck Manual is online now
But there it loses some of its magic
I’m keeping the tattered hardback of our youth
The trusty companion of our childhood days
When every summer oak concealed a dragon
And paths through the woods led to Neverland
The cattle pond was a mysterious sea
With a magic kingdom on the other side
Worlds better than this one, and far more true -
Oh, yes, I know that you remember too!
(Thank you, Uncle Walt, for everything.)
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Russian Chess
Computer of Lingering Death
In Ian Fleming’s novel Live and Let Die, the main
villain, Mr. Big, orders a minor villain, Tee Hee, to break the little finger
of James Bond’s left hand.
Ouch.
“Do you expect me to talk!?”
“No, Mr. Bond; I expect you to type only with your right
hand!”
Building on Tee Hee’s digital expertise, contemporary
Russia has developed a computerized hand which will break fingers and win chess
matches [Chess robot breaks finger of seven-year-old boy during
tournament in Russia | Daily Mail Online].
In an exhibition match in Moscow last week a
seven-year-old boy was playing against the mechanical Tee Hee when the machine,
perhaps in fear of losing, grabbed and crushed the child’s finger.
Naturally the adults blamed the child. Sergei Smagin, VP
of the Russian Chess Federation, said, “There are certain safety rules, and the
child, apparently, violated them.”
Safety rules. In chess. Yep, the rooks are especially
prone to mechanical breakdown and explosions if you don’t follow all safety
procedures.
If in Russia a player can lose a finger playing chess, then
the Go To Jail card in a game of Monopoly could be a ten-year sentence to the
Lubyanka.
Mr. Smagin averred that the finger-lickin’-good chess arm
is “absolutely safe.”
Sergei Lazerev, the President of the RCF, blamed the kid
for playing chess too fast, thus confusing the computer.
For embarrassing the computer and the State the
seven-year-old might be conscripted to drive a tank in Ukraine, where thousands
of young Russians are sent to die.
If a computer is so vindictive about losing a chess
match, imagine how dangerous it would be while driving home afterward,
especially if it stops off at the pub for a few boilermakers of WD-40 and Mr.
Clean.
Or maybe the chess computer wanders the lonely streets of
Volgograd at night, mumbling about how he lost to a seven-year-old: “I coulda
been somebody. I coulda been a contender. Instead of an itinerant chess bum.
Which is what I am.”
And so, parents, be advised: don’t let your innocent
children hang around dens of sin where chess is played. If your children start whispering
suspicious words and phrases like “en passant,” or “queen’s pawn to
queen’s pawn four” or “castling,” refer them immediately for psychological
counseling. Don’t be afraid to check your children’s room for such contraband
as chessboards. After all, you want your children to be normal, well-adjusted
Americans staring blankly into glowing Orwellian telescreens.
-30-
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Certain Bipedal
Species (us) Returns to the Primordial Muck
(The Self-Censored
Version)
A visit with old friends from long ago
The conversation soon turned to ___ and ___
They compared their ___ head to toe
___ ___ and ___ ___
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ embrace
A ___ that never ___ – oh, ick, that ooze!
The price of each ___
___ ___ disgrace
Discussed in ___ grunts and ___ moos
So I left early for fear
The next topic might be (this is just a hunch)
About which visiting human to cook for lunch
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Fitted with an
Ankle Monitor
No one wants to be fitted with an ankle monitor
Except for this man, selecting an ankle
No one wants to sign all sorts of government forms
Except for this man, signing those forms
No one wants to wait for hours in a lobby
Except for this man, waiting for hours
No one wants to pack three years into a paper bag
Except for this man
Who is one steel door, one concrete path, and two wire
gates
Away from his mom in the parking lot
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
An Armada of Black
Escalades
…detailed lists of disloyal government officials
-Inside Trump '25: A radical plan for Trump’s second
term (axios.com)
A shadow government just like
The new government just like
The previous government -
And just whose names are inscribed on Schedule F?
Those black Escalades
Armored Mariahs carrying functionaries
And their lists to secret meetings in the night
The Party faithful planning a new Lubyanka
And cultural suicide through electronic noise
Those black Escalades
The escort has a warrant for your obedience
You can see Siberia from the passenger seat
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Famous Name Brand Literary Magazine Gives Us
Only Four Commands Today
Famous name brand literary magazine
Gives us all only four commands today:
You should be watching
Reviews You Need to Read This Week
Start Listening Now
Start Reading Now
To which we who are obstinate respond:
No
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Bugging Gentlemen of a
Certain Age
For Tod
Who Waits for a Microchip
Oh, isn’t it awkward
being passed along
Up and down
confusing, fluorescent-lit corridors
From receptionist to
nurse-practitioner
To technician to
physician and back again
And given a little
card with a clever graphic design
On one side and an appointment
with
A different
receptionist / nurse-practitioner / technician /
Physician in another
time and place
The passings of time
and people concluding with
A ruling from a venerable
medical sage:
“Your heart is in
good condition -
for a man your age.”
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
For Protestors in All Causes
Please –
Stop pumping
your fisties up in the air
I’m tired of seeing
your old armpit hair!
Oh, yes, you
believe in this week’s cause
But that grotesque
growth would give a lawnmower pause
And one more trifling
thing (so please take note):
You shout and clench
your fist, but do you vote?
Lawrence Hall
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
The Dachshund and
the ‘Possum
I let the dog out for her night patrol
To sniff the boundaries and take a stroll
But out in the dark, beyond the cat
That was where an old ‘possum was at
The dachshund stiffened; she was filled with rage
She charged the enemy; she snarled, “ENGAGE!”
I commanded the dachshund to let it go
With bark and bite and snap her answer was “no”
The fierce dachshund growled; the old ‘possum hissed
I grabbed for the dog but obviously missed
I went back inside to take a shower
Thinking to give the stupid dog an hour
And so it passed; her allotted time is up
The standoff continues ‘tween ‘possum and pup
At dawn it may be that one is dead –
I’ll find out then; for now I’m off to bed!
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Time for the
Secret Service to be Reformed
One wonders if the Secret Service has become a Streltsy,
a palace guard answerable to no one.
Not so long ago the Secret Service was one of the most
honored organizations in the United States, and had earned that respect through
duty and sacrifice.
The Secret Service, so secret that it has its own
website: (Home | United States Secret Service),
is tasked with ensuring “…the safety of the president, the vice president,
their families, the White House, the vice president’s residence, visiting
foreign heads of state, former United States presidents and their spouses, and
events of national significance” (ibid).
The Secret Service is also involved in national security,
public safety, protecting the integrity of our decaying currency, and fighting
cybercrime.
We can conclude that under those titles and with an
acknowledged 7,000 members and an acknowledged budget of $2.44 billion [Secret
Service Director Calls for More Staffing, Retention and Cybersecurity
Funding - Government Executive (govexec.com)] the Secret Service is
one of the biggest, baddest boys on the metaphorical block and can do pretty
much whatever it wants to do.
But is the Secret Service in the 21st century doing
what it ought to do?
Setting aside the Service’s catalogue of world-wide party-hearty
scandals there are now serious questions about the Service’s actions on 6
January 2021 and a possible coverup.
The then-president at one point on 6 January tasked the
Secret Service with transporting him from one place to another within the
national capital, well within the scope of their duties. The Service refused.
We can argue until the emus come home about whether the president’s thoughts or
intentions were good or bad. That’s not the point. The point is that the
President of the United States gave a lawful order to the Secret Service, and
they did not follow it.
Later the same day the vice-president was moved by the
Secret Service from the House chamber, which was being attacked, to a place the
Service deemed safer, a loading dock in the basement. At some point the Secret Service wanted the
vice-president to seek further refuge within the purported safety of an armored
vehicle. While in the area of the
loading dock Mr. Pence was in view of dozens of people and cameras; inside the
armored car it would be a different matter. Apparently / it seems / maybe /
kinda / sorta that the vice-president felt that if he obeyed the Service and
got into the isolation of the interior of the armored car he would no longer
have any control over his movements and thus could not fulfil his
constitutional duty in certifying the election results. After all, given that
the Secret Service had earlier chosen to control the president’s movements,
controlling the vice-president’s movements would be easier.
And now we read that the not-so-secret Secret Service’s
communications for the 6th of January are suddenly secret after all
– like Mrs. Clinton’s communications [Why
Hillary Clinton Deleted 33,000 Emails on Her Private Email Server - ABC News
(go.com)] they have reportedly disappeared.
The point, remember, is not whether we like or dislike
Mr. Trump or Mr. Pence, or whether we are satisfied with the results of the
election. The point of these few paragraphs is that some of the 7,000 employees
of Secret Service, whose duties include protecting the president and
vice-president and by extension the safety of the nation, may have overreached their
authority for purposes best known to themselves, and may be concealing their
activities from oversight.
We need a stable organization protecting the presidency,
not a Streltsy controlling the presidency.
-30-
