An enclave of vast differentness
From almost everywhere.
A place where
The mainstream has diverted
And left a backwater
Of rebel flags on pickup trucks and
Department stores that
Don’t sell any ladies dresses.
A place where t-shirts loudly shout
“It’s my right to make you sick -
The Constitution says so.”
A place where thinking’s so alike
It could be called homogenized.
Where rumors suddenly become facts
And checking them anathema .
Where tennis shoes are worn to church
And cargo shorts to weddings.
A place bathed in self righteousness
With tolerance a myth.
A place that’s situated
On a small but mighty river
That ebbs and flows
From day to day at the whim
Of men in shirtsleeves
Who control the dam,
And leave their trucks parked just outside
With the flags still proudly flying.
                   ljm

-


from between feathered clouds
of the east through branches of
misguided deeds waving crooked
shadows into the window–

and then

penetrating the skin-tight sheet
that wraps around a throbbing
head into a pair of thin
quivering optical blinds—

the rays of Sunday Morning now
blisters a soul in preparation
for a forgiveness—

from Saturday night...



s jones
2022



.

I seem to have missed the lesson,
or maybe it was a paid seminar,
where being a ******* to folk not like you
is seen as cool

A staggering self-belief, or indoctrination
into a way of thinking that excludes
the workers, powerhouses, batteries,
seems insane in a way
that only limited lineages
seem genetically capable of

But now I’m stooping, so I’ll stop

Let’s all stop
being in thrall to noisy *******,
rugger-buggers who had charmed and broken youths,
who knew no hunger except in minds
and no kindness except paid for

I would feel pity, but these bred monsters
are parasitic,
so to let them survive,
******* and spouting lies,
kills us all in the end.

Britannia rules these waves

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                                    Ice in February

There is the fireplace, warm with summer oak
But you are not here to share it with me
There is the coffee *** – or I could brew tea
But you are not here to share it with me

The sounds of your voices
work with me,
the resonance of your mirth,
your anger, your vexation,
your empathy, your soul,
is orchestral in our everyday scrum
to keep me humming along

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                 Put Down the Rosary and Step Away from It

           Police interrupted a Catholic mass in Australia on Thursday
          after they received a tip that some parishioners may be
          violating a COVID-19 mask mandate

          -Police stop church service to make sure parishioners are
           wearing masks (msn.com)

Police have bravely raided a church in Perth
Some old folks at prayer on a Thursday night
Acting on a serpent’s tip (for what that’s worth)
Thus giving the wicked a righteous fright

Advance, Australia, thou land of the free!
Where prayerful insolence will be suppressed
And by the way, how much was the Judas-fee?
(Thirty Woolworth’s gift cards?)
We would want a snake to have only the best

One doubts this was only about some masks
What other reasons might there be? one asks

Seen as having never been
Though circumspectly in between
This parody of eerie sound
Sifting simply, and profound…
Through tones of gossamer intent,
In vagaries of soft ascent,
Whispering, wafting through the breeze
With phantom interceptions ease….

Quite thought as having never been
In silenced echoing, serene.

M.
3 February 2022

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                       Swastikas over Ottawa

            I am not anti-American. But I am strongly pro-Canadian.

                                          -John Diefenbaker

Dear Canada, your home and native land
Has been an inspiration to the world
Your wise and happy Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Is a blessing you have shared with all

Dear Canada, who has now ordered you
To permit foul banners of obscene hate
To scream obscenities at each other
To desecrate the memorials of your peoples

In sum, Dear Canada –
Why in the hell are some of you acting like Yanks?

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                             Picking up a Box at the Nursing Home

In a cardboard box: a Rosary, glasses
A change of clothes, a pair of shoes, some socks
The miscellaneous bits and bobs of life
At the end of it

The nurses’ aide says she will pray for him
And probably she will; she seems nice
And truly everyone has been nice but now
It’s time to go

Some of the staff are on a cigarette break
On picnic benches out front – life goes on