Poems by Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall
Each Birthday is a Step in the Right Direction
“The Road goes ever on and on, / Down from the door where it began” -Tolkien
A birthday is not the beginning of something new
But rather part of a continuing story
From its Prologue and its Chapter One
Through the dark leaves of Mirkwood and beyond
Yes, there be dragons, more than ever, it seems
But sometimes still we glimpse magic by moonlight
Or take an ale or two at a wayside inn
Then sticks and packs again, our faces set West
If this were my last hour, I still could say
With Tollers and Jack: the Road goes ever on
I Demanded to be Heard
When I was young I demanded to be heard
And I was not heard, which turned out for the best
Because I had almost nothing to say
And that almost-nothing was sodden with cliché
Ozymandias ‘N’ Things
I met a UPS driver from an antique land
Who said – “Down the road two shopping malls
Decay along the road, on either hand
Broken doors lead into empty, echoing halls
The blown-out signs are ghostly anymore
Their electric lights are dead; the letters decay
Around the logo of each long-dead store
And in their emptiness they seem to say:
Look upon my works, ye mighty –
Sears, Radio Shack, Montgomery Ward, Mr. Pickwick, Circuit City, Bonwit Teller, Gimbel’s, Brooks Brothers, Woolworth’s, Marshall Field’s, Kresge’s, Blockbuster, Border’s, CompUSA, Sharper Image, Tower Records, Toys R Us, B. Dalton, Levitz, Waldenbooks, Thom McAn, Linens N Things, KB toys, Mervyn’s, Lord & Taylor, Joske’s
– and despair”
Did You Grow Up in a Palace Too?
In Memory of the Palace Theatre
If you were fortunate you grew up in a palace
A Technicolor palace where Robin Hood
Saved England for only twenty-five cents
And the royal feast was popcorn and RC Cola
If you were fortunate you grew up in a palace
Which was so big that the Comanche Nation
Could encircle both a fort and a wagon train
And a candy bar was chuck-wagon stew
If you were fortunate you grew up in a palace
And softly, sweetly found another’s hand
As the cowboys and Indians rode away in peace –
There was a newer magic for you to discover
If you were fortunate you grew up in a palace
In the summertime of your happy youth
El Camino Real de los Tejas
A WPA highway crumbling in the sun
Oriented west where dreams disappear
Among the beer cans and the cinder blocks:
El Camino Real de los Tejas
Sharing a joint, throwing rocks at snakes
Where the Santa Fe tracks used to run
Now there’s not even a bus out of town:
El Camino Real de los Tejas
They don’t even know that they’re the sons of kings:
In exile along El Camino Real
Appropriating Babushkas from the Orthodox
A babushka badly in need of a hearing aid
Asked me if I would sub for the missing lector
I apologetically said I really didn’t feel up to it
And would she please ask somebody else.
I tracked her progress back to the narthex by sound:
“HE SAYS HE DON’T WANNA HE’S SICK!” “HE SAYS HE DON’T WANNA HE’S SICK!” “HE SAYS HE DON’T WANNA HE’S SICK!”
But it’s all good; God gives us babushkas
To show us that the Faith, like the babushkas
Will never go away
LogoSophia Magazine 