This Side of the Covid

May 4, 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.

Infections are up and deaths are ‘way down
Or is it that infections are down and deaths are up?
Schools must be closed and the restaurants open
Or schools must be open and restaurants closed…

This Fog Won’t Last

January 26, 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

Oh, no. The night is misty indeed, but the stars –
The stars still shine; be brave, and look for them.

Your Job is Essential

August 18, 2020.Reading time 5 minutes.

Some say this is the age of the coronavirus. Perhaps it is, but more than that this is the age of incoherence. No one agrees on what the killer virus is, where it came from, masks or not masks, isolation or congregation, work or no work, treatments, dubious medicines (Macbeth IV:1), numbers of deaths, or the utility of borders (Richard II II:1)

Behind the Mask

August 11, 2020.Reading time 7 minutes.

A collection of poems by Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall
We mourn the passing of poor Joe Draper
Crushed by falling cases of toilet paper
And though poor Joe had fever, ‘flu, and gout,
It was the toilet paper that wiped him out

Putting on a Bold Texas Face Against CV-19

August 4, 2020.Reading time 4 minutes.

My latest washable mask is from the skilled fingers of a local young woman artisan who crafted it with variations on our Lone Star Flag. When I drive into town on errands I’m not only doing my small part for the safety of others, I’m also showing my loyalty to our Republic…

Church-Time in Virus-Time

June 16, 2020.Reading time 3 minutes.

Trinity Sunday – a cosmic leap indeed
From the second week in Lent until now
We bless ourselves with holy chemicals
And the awkward elbow-bump of peace

A Time for Sabbath

June 6, 2020.Reading time 10 minutes.

The Sabbath is a day of rest in order to break away from the realm of mankind. It is important to honor the Sabbath because we are spiritual. This world is a space to work and serve one another for six days a week, but on the seventh day, we remember to rest, to let God be in control.

Shakespeare Aboard the Enterprise

May 28, 2020.Reading time 5 minutes.

While isolated in my rural estate here along Beer Can Road and County Dump Extension I have been dragging hoses, reading Robert Frost, saying bad things about the ‘possums pillaging my vegetable garden, and considering Star Trek…

A Haircut!

May 18, 2020.Reading time 1 minute.

A haircut today – my Wolfman look is shorn
The virus-time follicles set to rights
Follies and follicles, the locks of lockdown
A-tumbling down in coarse, unseemly waves…

Now They are Imprisoned Twice

April 28, 2020.Reading time 1 minute.

We cannot volunteer in prison now
The grids and grills that shut the prisoners in
Now serve to shut most everyone else out
And bars now bar us from teaching each other

With a Dog and an Oxygen Tank

April 18, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

An old man with a dog and oxygen tank
Steers his duct-taped golf cart to the café
For the morning liturgy at his corner seat
The vinyl cathedra where he presides in state…

Holy Saturday in the Virus-Time

April 11, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Holy Saturday in the Virus-Time
Sure, there are empty churches, but…

Fleur D’espoir (Flower of Hope)

March 31, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

The deep blue spiderwort – she does not know
An epidemic now has been declared
And all the world beyond her cobalt glow
Has found itself panicked and unprepared…

A Rainy Day and Locked-Down Anyway

March 24, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

No excuses, of course: we must get dressed
If death itself appears at the front door
We would not want to be caught in our ‘jammies
Or in surrender flaked upon the couch…