Two Political Campaign Signs Set on Fire
Perhaps that’s all the fire they’ve got this year
Obediently yapping into the dark
In camouflage knee-pants and plastic shoes
Both sides agreeing only in their hate…
Tag: Lawrence Hall
Political Voices
Bitter Old Men Yelping at Each Other:
My country, ‘tis of thee
“Get out of your bunker and get out of the sand trap!”
Sweet land of liberty
“What do you want to call them? Give me a name. Give me a name!”
Loaves and Wishes
“Is there a vegan option?”
“Are these fish from renewable stocks?”
“Is this bread gluten free?”
“Is this all you’ve got – bread and fish?”
Robinson Crusoe Orders a Generator from Amazon.com
In practiced unison we again recite
The liturgies of flashlight batteries
Bottled water, paper plates and plastic sporks
And Meals-Ready-To-Eat, though they really aren’t
Mi Corazon
As we were finishing our meal and our catching-up, the restaurant manager walked by slowly with an elegant, elderly lady on his arm.
“This is my son,” the elegant lady said to us. “Don’t you think he is handsome?”
The Juggler of Midlothian, a Worthy Man
He steps into the center of the lobby
He steps up and sends into inner space
Tennis balls Tennis balls Tennis balls
Tennis balls
Water-Stained Pages in a Missal
Crinkly, wrinkly pages in a missal
They’re water-stained – how did that come to be?
Book Shops Offer Us Civilizations
Book shops offer us civilizations
Democracies of the living and the dead –
Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, and you
Over cups of coffee wrangling meter and rhyme…
The Chainsaw Days of September
These are the chainsaw days, humid and hot
Wind-blasted shingles and wind-blasted trees
And clearing windfall in the gasping heat:
Litter to the burn-piles, firewood to the stacks…
A Review of Hugh Lofting’s ‘Victory for the Slain’
There is much more to Hugh Lofting than conversing with rabbits and squirrels – after all, everyone does that. In 1942 Lofting wrote his one adult work, Victory for the Slain.
Read MoreWeathering Plague-Time and Hurricanes
…But this year all your friends fit into cubes
On the computer screen at your kitchen table
And you hope your stupid brother won’t dance
Across the room in his Captain Marvel underwear…
In Media Res All Is Chaos
Maybe I disappoint, but now I prefer
That safe distance Yevtushenko condemned
Because in media res all is chaos
The immediacy of emotion and pain…
Two Cones
And now two cones are moving up the coast
Maybe tomorrow they’ll move back down again
While we stack toilet paper and MREs
Perhaps the ice cream truck’s an ice cream float…
A Statue of Our Favorite War Hero
Let us build a statue of Sergeant Schultz
Standing bravely at the door of Baracke 2
With a bouquet of flowers in one mighty hand
And a slice of apple strudel in the other…
Your Job is Essential
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)
Read MoreSummer of the Blue Helmets
Sergeant Schneider barked at us, his young heroes
And made us crawl the beach at Oceanside
And tho’ he made each day’s harsh training1 sting
One evening at Mass we heard sweet children sing…
Behind the Mask
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
Civic Holiday (Canada)
With Jesus and some children and a sheep
The funeral home Catholic calendar says
That today is “Civic Holiday (Canada)”
I don’t know what that is, this August day…
Putting on a Bold Texas Face Against CV-19
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…
Read MoreSummer In the Garden II
But we consult the winds, the clouds, the stars
Whose songs and shapes and brilliant silences
Allow us to savor all mysteries
The hymns of Creation from long ago…
LogoSophia Magazine 