Friday, September 6, 2024

Draft Beer, Not Students - poem

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Draft Beer, Not Students

 

A slogan from the 1960s

 

In illo tempore:

 

A young man swaggers across the ‘versity quad

Smoking a Marlboro or affecting a pipe

‘Way cool in his sports coat and turtleneck

Shakespeare or physics held loosely in his hand

 

A young woman passes through the ‘versity quad

Smoking a Parliament or checking her mirror

‘Way cool in her pencil skirt and layered look

Shakespeare or physics held closely to her heart

 

Sed in tempore nostro:

 

Pronouns galumph across the ‘versity squad

One fist raised in hate, the other clutching a glowing box

Thursday, September 5, 2024

You are not a Banana - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

You are not a Banana

 

Sticker Not, Lest Ye be Stickered

 

A banana bears a sticker to say it is a banana

(The banana, that is, not the paper sticker)

Even though a banana is obviously a banana

(It has a yellow skin and some squashy stuff inside)

 

If we take the banana sticker from the banana

And stick the ticker to a tomato

The tomato is not then a banana

However much someone claims it so

 

Sticking sticky stickers to humans is also wrong

A man is himself; a woman is herself

If we stick a sticky sticker to a human

As a joke, well, that’s just a bit of fun

 

But if as a judgement then we are false witnesses

 

Stickers, nothing but stickers, excuses

Failures of intellect, truth, and caritas

Stickers are two-dimensional; they have no depth

Stickers are useless even on bananas

 

And our brothers and sisters are not bananas

Barefootin' Among Watermelons on a Summer Afternoon - poem

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Barefootin’ Among Watermelons on a Summer Afternoon

 

For J. W., His Dad, and His Uncle Brandon

 

J. W. is blessed with family and purpose and love

Guided study and chores and structured faith

Happy barefootin’ days among the watermelons

A fishing pole and buzzing-bee summer afternoons

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Feeding the Squirrels and Birds at Dawn - very short poem

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Feeding the Squirrels and Birds at Dawn

 

A squirrel sits upon a little mound of corn

And faces the east with its nimble forepaws

Clasped gently together as if in prayer


Friday, August 30, 2024

The Grave Robber of Fifth Avenue - poem

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

The Grave Robber of Fifth Avenue

 

Unferth postures upon the ashes of warriors

The warriors he has despised all his wretched life

Because he is unworthy to be one of them

Warring with only his mouth and never a spear

 

He mocks their wounds, their missing limbs, their graves

He steals their widows and orphans for himself

As ornaments to his manic caperings

While arrogating honors he could never win

 

But when the Dragon comes…

 

But when the Dragon comes, lashing its tail

Unferth will be ghosted away as a howling wail

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

J. Alfred Prufrock and the Giant Peach - not really a poem, just three lines of blank verse being frivolous

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

J. Alfred Prufrock and the Giant Peach

 

“Do I dare to eat a peach?” He asked

“Yes, yes. just eat the stupid peach and stop

Banging on about it,” I replied

Monday, August 26, 2024

Kafka and the Self-Service Checkout Kiosk - a bit of fun

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Kafka and the Self-Service Checkout Kiosk

                                                            Thanks to Rowan Pelling


                                    Those who have never suffered through Kafka

Should not employ the adjective “Kafkaesque”

The landgraf would not approve


When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning

from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed

in his bed into a monstrous self-service checkout kiosk.

 

Someone must have traduced Joseph K.,

for without doing anything wrong

he was arrested in the checkout line

one fine morning

 

It was late in the evening when

the supermarket supervisor arrived.

 

 

Kafka, The Metamorphosis. Trans. Stanley Corngold. New York: Norton. 1972

 

Kafka, The Trial. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. New York: The Modern Library. 1956

 

Kafka, The Castle. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. New York: Schocken. 1982

 

The hell of self-service checkouts is becoming Kafkaesque (yahoo.com)

Falling Into Truth - poem

   Lawrence Hall, HSG Mhall46184@aol.com                                                    Falling Into Truth   The fall of October’s leave...