Rounded by salt and
Water rolling from
Tide to tide

Inviolate cipher of
All time
Fallen from molten skies

At the beginning

Holding all
Within your elliptical
Mystical mound
Of stone

the wind moves my feet.
my eyes shining like the sun and the sea.

"your love brings me to my knees."

her sigh is a whisper
soft like autumn leaves
silently falling to the cold ground.

the shadow of a smile.
my heart misplaced
like a paper lantern in the rain.

my broken sky,

her soft sigh
and I was no longer hers.

The moody weather or something
Long overcooked perhaps
Still sizzling outside or worse
Like some giant red-hot steel
Needed taming and quenching

Oh! The blacksmiths of the skies
Blacken with thick smoke
And appeared somewhat
Motionless like some foamy
Caught on camera

The incessant light showers
During this month
could wash off the icing
Of a cake faster than
The summer heat of Miami

Some sipped and laughed while
Having their skins kneaded
We watched on our TV screens
How they got baked and ready
How they frolicked about
In rainbow bikinis and
Walked stealthily on beach sands

But somewhere in Nigeria
Same hour and day
Where the sun goes MIA
Where the indoor dwellers
Become weather observers
Overstaying her welcome
August rain is that mean guest
That lets her pneumonia sneeze
Get inside your shivering skin

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                           Our Little Universities

                                          From an idea by Nivek

Many books are little universities
Complete with faculties and study halls
Grassy lawns on which to argue ideas
Syllabi written from your heart and mind

Laboratories of the mind for distilling wisdom
A concert hall of happy voices in song
“Pomes All Sizes” spoken from the heart
And maybe a Rain Tree on your walk to class

The Brothers Karamazov as a prayer book
300 Tang Poems with the wisdom of China
The Oxford Book of English Verse, edited by Q
                    (Not THAT Q!)
Doctor Zhivago in squabbling translations

And some have spoken most eloquently
                                                         for Goodnight Moon
And now what university of yours helps sing
                                                         your world in tune?