Perception
Conception
Deception

What does it mean to be real truly?
May be to get up elsewise each morning?
Or drink my coffee elsewise all the time?
To hush elsewise or sound for something?

To be real… What does it mean truly?
To meet rules, fashion or weather folly?
Or may be befit you? No love, no suffer, no joy,
No tenderness  - all’s a waste as an ice-lolly.

Don’t think about the sea while watching the sunset?
Don’t dream about the forest while listening to birds?
Don’t walk in the rain and don’t drip with wet?
And don’t have any feelings? No afterwords.

No. I decided one day to be real truly.
But I didn’t break myself while making the same.
I continue to walk in the rain, to drink my coffee.
And I will never tell a lie to myself again.

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                    Let’s All Meet in Cicely

                      From a dream that sailed from Thailand

Let’s all meet in Cicely before the snow
You can find me sitting outside The Brick
At peace as the gentle autumn breezes blow
Having put aside my hiking stick

Fleischmann joins us on that old wooden bench
Chris-in-the-Morning stops by for a beer
Hollings gives Shelly a husbandly pinch
She takes his broom and with it smacks his rear

Maurice and Maggie, Ruth-Anne, Marilyn, and Ed
Drop in with stories of love and life and history
And news brought in by plane and road and sled
To this Brigadoon of happy mystery

Let’s all meet in Cicely before the snow
And share in its peace before we go

i wish you meant it when you say you love me.
i know you think you do,
but you don’t.
because if you loved me,
you wouldn’t be leaving without saying goodnight.
i know you’re not asleep
because you always fall asleep early when i’m upset.
i get it.
i’m too much.
i’m only good
when i’m telling you how much i love you.

if you loved me
you would’ve said
“stop rereading your old poems,
they only hurt you.”
you would’ve said
“baby i love you
and i wish you didn’t feel like you have to cut yourself.”
and you’d mean it.
when i tell you that i want to anyway,
you’d say
“don’t.
but if you do, be safe.”
and i wouldn’t.
because you love me.
but you don’t.

if you loved me,
i’d feel it even when i’m sad.
even when you’re speechless.
and even when you’re upset with me
for being upset.
but i didn’t.
i felt like
i ruined everything.
and i felt like
you didn’t love me.
please come back to me.

a leap outwith creation
first cause enacted
and what a commotion.

Humid air
middle of the summer
every dog and child happy to be outside
surrounded by hippies and
cheap speakers playing rock ‘n’ roll
along the river in front of us were small ferries
I can't remember what happened yesterday but
I recall the feeling of when I first saw you
turning around slowly to glance at
who I didn't know
will spend the rest of my life
dancing in back of my mind
there
was the woman whom I didn't know
will always I desire
the very, only wanted one
never will I ever have.

Can you feel the southern heat.?
In the midst of the day
Looking for relief
I wonder which way
       Should I go?
Can you feel the sun beating down?
Is there anyone around.?
I’m starting to feel down
Everywhere I look
The heat index is rising
Can you feel the southern heat?

what people say lately
the compliments
give me a headache

i think too much
was my makeup too much?
did i overdress? underdress?

but why should i torture myself
with such unimportant questions?
i am pretty.
and i deserve it.