Lawrence Hall, HSG
Vice-President Kamala Harris’ Speech of Gratitude and Farewell to Her Faithful Followers in the Early Hours of 6 November 2024
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Lawrence Hall, HSG
Vice-President Kamala Harris’ Speech of Gratitude and Farewell to Her Faithful Followers in the Early Hours of 6 November 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Election Night 2024: Dry Bones
“All we are, basically, are monkeys with car keys”
-Grandma Woody in Northern Exposure, “Animals R Us,” 1991
An early dusk falls under clouds from the Gulf
Yellow houselights wink on as daylight winks off
Supper in greasy bags from fast-fooderies
That everyone argues they can’t afford
Then like the lozenge in A Space Odyssey
A screen appears and dominates all
And family groupings center themselves around it
In excited cavortings before the images
Of brightly-colored cultic election scores
As fists swinging dry bones crush enemy skulls
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Nora, Theo, and
Pushkin-the-Rescue-Cat
After rough adventures Pushkin has found his way home
The children celebrate with him his happy new life
By crowning their purring prince with vines and flowers
And he is pleased to accept their adoration and love
Too soon children must leave their merriments
And rebuild civilization among the wreckages
In a time of hatreds and ideologies
When all seem to have forgotten the way to Jerusalem
And so for now
May children enjoy the springtime of their lives
For they (and the cat) remind us of our appointed path
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Porta Coeli
“I pray you, sir, remember the porter”
-Macbeth II.iii.20ff
We are all porters; we open doors for others
Sometimes we open them for ourselves
If we close a door, it is against the rain and cold
And not against each other
(Yes, in Macbeth the Porter is drunk and inept, and when he says “remember the porter” he is asking for a tip in spite of his incompetence. I put the line in anyway because we are all porters.)
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Most Embarrassed Young
Father in All of Christendom
I will go in to the Altar of God.
To God who giveth joy to my youth.
The Roman
Missal,
1962
The processional
had hardly ended
With
each minister and server in place
Each
knee for a moment respectfully bended
In
acknowledgement of God’s gentle Grace
When
came to our ears a frightening assault
Of
sirens and horns, and then flashing lights
Beneath
the sanctuary’s sacred vault
A
catalogue of wild electronic frights
To
the narthex door a father rushed
Awkwardly
in the sight of God and man
His
handsome manly face was deeply flushed
His
son’s toy helicopter was clutched in his hands
He
carried the noisy gadget far away -
(A
true helicopter parent we may say!)
We
delight in our children; for them we pray
And
thank God for all families this Sabbath day
I will go in to the Altar of God.
To God who giveth youthful joy to
old age.
-Parenting
1301
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Sunday Evening News in a Time of Elections
“Good things of day begin to droop and drowse”
-Macbeth III.ii.58
Suddenly the yellowing afternoon is still
For Indian Summer breezes have slipped away
While clouds of silent midges swirl against the sun
For reasons of nature known only to themselves
The treeline is blue as evening comes on
But the hayfields glow golden for a little while
Until Old Sol falls asleep at last
And the firstling stars come out to play
A rabbit shyly nibbles at the dewing grass –
The day is over; we have to let it pass
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Plumber’s Assistant, a Nazi, and an Artificial Tree
Nazi Rally in Madison Square Garden, 10
February 1939
Isadore Greenbaum
wanted to punch a Nazi
And so he charged – he
didn’t get very far
And was beaten up by Real
Americans (cough)
(It took only four or five of ‘em)
And arrested by the
New York City Police
One Nazi stopped
kicking Greenbaum to set aright
An artificial tree
that was about to fall
Which is a curiosity –
what remnant of good
Was in that man that
he kept a decoration in place?
Greenbaum is a hero in
our nation’s history -
The tidy Nazi remains
a mystery
Lawrence Hall, HSG Mhall46184@aol.com Vice-President Kamala Harris’ Speech of Gratitude and Farewell to Her Faithful Followers in...