A collection of poems by Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall (Rated G)
A Cargo Cult
Conversations are about packages
Packages considered, packages ordered
Packages delivered and packages stolen
Packages as the cosmic medium of exchange
Conversations are about packages
Packages that give meaning to our lives
Packages pinched by plundering porch pirates
Packages snatched by maskers in masks
What is it all about? the thinker asks –
What if the packages are filled with masks?
Author’s Note: from The Cargo Cults of the South Pacific (sjsu.edu) and other sources
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
Is Love Delivered by UPS?
Wishing You and Yours a Happy and Holy Prime Day
All the empty boxes won’t go away
So I’m burning them outside after the rain
Automatic gunfire from the next road over
And is there a meaning in all of this?
We have mail-order cameras to protect
All the mail-order things that we don’t need
From the neighbors firing off rounds at dusk
Maybe at a menacing metaphor
All wants are now delivered to a home address –
And is love, too, delivered by UPS?
The Carrier Picked Up the Package
The carrier picked up the package, this says
Whoever the poor carrier might be
This Sunday morning, at work before dawn
While I sit with a coffee and read the note
The world of packages is dark out there
Tired loaders and drivers hope for coffee too
It the schedules and supervisors permit
But otherwise, the bosses send them out
I am up early because I cannot sleep
Workers are up early – they have little choice
Left in a Package Locker
“Left in a package locker” – that probably means
That someone left it at the post office in town
Because the private deliveries sometimes say
They can’t find our house, except when they do
It worked out well enough for Paddington Bear
But our depot was torn down years ago
And freight trains thunder by without a stop
Without regard for packages or bears
And so
We’ll drive to town next week to see if there
Is waiting for us, properly tagged, a little bear
LogoSophia Magazine 