A collection of poems by Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall
Children Playing in a Roadside Ditch
Happy children playing in a roadside ditch
Barefoot and laughing in shorts and tees
A boy grabbing up a frog to frighten the girls
A girl sloshing the boys with a bucket of muck
They pause to peer through a magnifying glass
A worm or a minnow the passerby can’t see
Because to adults, as with many things
The waterways of Fairyland are closed
Happy children playing in a magic fountain
Just as we did when we were very young
A Little Kitten and a Little Girl
A little girl sits with her mug of milk
Happy and peaceful with her breakfast toast
Her little kitten lays beside her and purrs
And takes a delicate sip for itself
“DID YOU LET THAT CAT DRINK FROM YOUR CUP THAT CAT HAS GERMS GO WASH YOUR HANDS GIVE ME THAT CUP I NEED TO WASH IT I DON’T KNOW WHY THAT CAT IS IN THE HOUSE CATS HAVE GERMS DIRTY CAT….”
A little girl sits in her backyard swing
Happy and peaceful with her little cat
Two conspirators winking at each other
Far away from their disapproving mother
In a Second-Hand Copy of Durrell’s Clea:
A School Photograph of a Little Girl
She has obviously been commanded to smile
And so she projects a dutiful grin
But she seems to be a happy child anyway
Proud of her new red shirt with polka-dots
We send our children to school to learn to read
To add, subtract, multiply, and divide into groups
For P.E. class, to line up nicely for lunch
To pass notes, giggle, and plant seeds in eggshells
We don’t know how this child’s image found its way
To an Alexandria that never really was
When the Farmer’s Daughter was Late for School
She was a petite and delicate child
And studious, her work among the best
Beloved of her classmates for her demeanor mild
And all of us who knew her felt ourselves blessed
One day she was late, which had never happened before
There was ‘flu going ‘round – had she caught a chill?
Breathlessly she appeared at the classroom door
I was worried, and asked if she were ill
She smiled most sweetly, and shook her curly head:
“We been busy castratin’ hawgs,” she said
Something That Will Stick to Your Ribs
When I was a boy I was told to eat balanced meals
“Something that’ll stick to your ribs,” they said
But I didn’t want anything sticking to my ribs
I still don’t
Rain Puddles and Children
For Nora and Theo
Our boat-captain neighbor is home from the sea* (Okay, the Gulf of Mexico)
And this morning took his children for a walk
Along our road, and stopped to visit with me –
Nora watches and listens, but Theo loves to talk
Talktalktalktalktalktalktalktalktalktalktalktalk
He wildly rushes his sentences and words
Words piled in heaps – he has so much to say!
But Nora in silence celebrates flowers and birds
She sees whole worlds in puddles along the way
And into them Theo LEAPS!
We know this world is in a bit of a muddle
But when children splash through a rain-filled puddle
They make everything better
*“Requiem,” Robert Louis Stevenson. The context is entirely different.
So Fast Thou Grow’st
Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 11
“I put something out there in the universe…” -Chris-in-the-Morning, Northern Exposure
You will make something beautiful in any event
Even if only a silly ceramic frog
Holding a perfectly pointless umbrella
Upon the tree-stump where you feed the birds
Your silly ceramic frog will someday break
The stump will rot away into the earth
The birds will live through their generations
And you will be but whisperings in the wind
But you make life beautiful in any event:
It is a forever that you put into the universe
The Word’s Fresh Ornaments
Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 1
The world’s fresh ornaments – children at play
In a springtime glow of iridescent greens
A sweet Creation scene of little bare feet
And puppies’ paws scampering across soft lawns
Bold pirate ships patrol the honeybees’ pool
And mockingbirds offer flights to the tops of the oaks
A line of waving crocus borders this Narnia
Oh, could there ever be a happier world?
The sun, the green, the bees, the endless day
The world’s fresh ornaments – children at play
Little Children are Much Like Dachshund Puppies
With wildly scattered toys the lawn is messed –
Little children came to visit – O how we are blessed!
I’m Gonna Tell Santa Claus on You!
For Nora and Theo
The children scamper across my grassy lawn
And bring me wiggly worms to identify
Big acorns to admire, lemons fallen weeks before
Sticks and leaves, pinecones, flowers, and bits of barkThey lose their shoes and socks beneath the oak
They drink from the water hose and don’t turn it off
They chase the dog and the dog chases them
They shriek out joyfully because they can
I growl that if I mow another bit of brick
I’m gonna tell ol’ Santa Claus on them
They laugh at me, and bring me another worm
LogoSophia Magazine 