Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
How Old Are You?
A question:
If you did not know how old you are
How old, then, would you say you are?
An answer:
I will go in to the altar of God.
To God who giveth joy to my youth.
And there you are
“How old…” – many attributions
“To God…” -Missale Romanum, Baronius
Press, 2008
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
For Those Who Long for the President’s Firing Squads
We still have judgement here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague th’ inventor.
-Macbeth I.vii.8-10
Although you may jeer a condemned man today
And laugh as he’s dragged to that berm and wall
The evil that breaks his body will turn your way
You too will hear the Fatal Bellman’s call
The verdict sustained, the appeals laughed off
Poorly trained riflemen will unlock your door
As they drag you away they will scorn and scoff
If they notice you at all – ‘tis their daily chore
You’ll scream into the void your vain last plea:
“I didn’t mean for this to happen to ME!”
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Breaking News: Shots Not Fired
How lovely it would be to hear someone say
“A few minutes ago in Washington
Several incidents of love rang out.”
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
Sunday Morning Jesus with a Bullhorn
“Ye miserable, crawlin’ worms. Are ye here again then?...You’re all damned! DAMNED!”
-from Amos Starkadder’s There’ll Be No Butter in Hell sermon to the Church of the
Quivering Brethren, Cold Comfort Farm
(Sinner, are you saved?!)
When he was sharin’ a bottle an’ a joint
He was much more likeable, a dirt-road drunk
But now he shares Jesus through a bullhorn
And notches souls on his Sears & Roebuck guitar
(God sent me to preach you to Heaven!)
He hates them town churches like he hates the devil
Lost a finger at the sawmill; carries groceries now
His mama gives him a ride to work each day
She says th’ cops is always a-pickin’ on him
(Don’t you go to Hell with them Methodists and Popists!)
She says th’ police don’t like him or Jesus
But he had convictions before he got Conviction
(And let th’ people say, “A-men!”)
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
“And Wrinkled Lip, and Sneer of Cold Command”
“That Colossal Wreck”
-Shelley, “Ozymandias”
Now where have all the red caps of
livery gone?
The bumper stickers, the banners,
the made-in-China tees
The tattered flags that fanned
our people cold
The tatty bibles with their
leader’s ‘graph
An old man plays with a toy triumphal
arch
Neither Doric nor Ionic nor
Corinthian
But rather after the order of
Albert Speer
Astride a cemetery axis road
Like a pompous colossus in gold
and gilt -
But by the Grace of God, never to
be built
Allusions, Collusions, and Confusions
Title: from
“Ozymandias”
1. An
allusion to “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?”, a song of disastrous transition
and a circle of death caused by war. The origins are worth reading up.
1. Livery in
the sense of a wealthy master’s uniforms or costumes for his servants or slaves
2-4. The vulgar
merchandising of the presidency
3. Macbeth
I.ii.56-57
4. The
merchandizing of the presidency and Christianity, with non-canonical secular
content that appears to form a biased foundation document establishing a
national religion
6. The three
noble orders of architecture
7. Albert
Speer was Hitler’s architect. The proposed Trump arch is reminiscent of Speer’s
heavy-footed and often cluttered designs. Toward the end of his, oh, career
Hitler often retreated to the room where Speer’s models were kept so that he
could play with them
8. The
proposed Trump arch would dominate the road to Arlington, a siting which many
perceive as disrespectful to the American war dead buried there
9. Colossus
– many historical and literary allusions. Shelley’s “Ozymandias” has often been
referenced in the dissolution of the trumperies of tyrants, their architectural,
artistic, and name-stamping vanities
9. The axis
/ Axis wordplay is obvious
9 – 10. Gilt
as guilt, another obvious wordplay
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
The Little Sisters of the Enneagram
Wel koude he rede a lesson or a storie,
But alderbest he song an offertorie
-Chaucer, General Prologue 70-71
Some travelling nuns offered an enneagram weekend
Making the parish hall a lab for self-discovery
Nine truths about the self for a small fee stipend
Two afternoons of healing for the soul’s recovery
The Law of Three and the Law of Seven
Tritipes and Wings and something called Triads
Ride your Hexagon around to Heaven
(Please power down your MePhones and IPads)
If everyone in the world worked out his enneagram…
We’d still have cope with holy grifters, so (darn)!
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the
Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's
Journal of Life, Literature and Love
Route
66 Ends in a Used-Car Lot
Nothing behind me, everything in front of me, as is ever
so on the road
-Jack Kerouac
Someone’s dream in the long ago
This heavy Chevy was someone’s
Ticket to Ride
Maybe back around ‘62 or so
Now she’s slathered with Bondo, but
still has her pride
She wants you to come in out of
the rain
Check out the tuck-and-roll, the
heavy chrome
Her tires are okay; they’ve got
lots of traction
This baby could be your honey-courtin’
home
(She’s tells hot tales about her
back-seat action!)
Under the sodium-vapor lights
She welcomes each young man with
sly winks and smiles -
“Hey, mister, look me over; I still
got some miles!”
“Ticket to
Ride” - a song by the Beatles. Multiple meanings are attributed to the term.
Bondo – a
brand of putty or filler used in covering holes and dents.
