Lawrence Hall, HSG
The French Government Collapses
4 December 2024
How can a government possibly collapse -
Did the National Assembly suffer a fainting spell?
Did the cabinet consume poisoned croissants
Or discover they’d been deceived by a California wine?
Perhaps a statue of Saint Joan of Arc
Newly gowned in haute couture from Wal-Mart
Lies prostrate in the Champs Elysee
Next to a made-in-China guillotine
How can a government have worked all in vain –
Did everyone in office go in Seine?
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Old Mr. ‘Possum and
the Moon
Old
Mr. ‘Possum is a garbageman
Who
quietly works his appointed nightly rounds
Unappreciated
as he tidies this
And
cleans up that, all without any fuss
The
other animals don’t seem to like him much
For
his wobbling, waddling walk, his untidiness
His
pointy nose, his all-draggledy tail
And
his awkward shape like a loaf of oaf
But
when he lifts his eyes to the queen of the skies
He
knows that to her he is a knight in disguise
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Another Argument Against the Death Penalty
Each one of us is a murderer
To someone else whose memory is long
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Ordinary
Time and Advent: as a Diptych or a Dipstick or Something
I. The Last Day in
Ordinary Time
Time is not at all ordinary, of course
It is an ordinal of flowing days
Whose current in its journey swims among
The well-marked seasons of sacred observances
Advent into and through Christmas and its promise
Lent into and through Easter and its fulfillment
Cycles of seasons, penance, and merry feasts
Each as a step in the great dance of Creation
All seasons echo God’s eternal rhyme
Blessing our senses with His created time
II. This is When
You Light That First Candle Against Darkness
Ordinary Time is now as summer’s lost leaves
Autumn has fallen into fogs and frosts
Pale sunshine flickers from shallow angles all day
Marking out the road to Bethlehem
Before the Altar in the parish church
A wreath is set with four candles to light
The first one today and a second next week
A third, a fourth, and then at last the Stable
The Stable at last, where the universe sings
The happy Desire of all our wanderings
Lawrence Hall, HSG
A Parliamentary Validation of Guy Fawkes
The death-penalty ban has been reversed
But will members of Parliament want to go first?
Lawrence Hall, HSG
The Mostest
Magicalist Familiestest Christmas Ever
She will make this the most magical family Christmas ever
With the perfect tree
The perfect gifts
The perfect table
The perfect meal
The perfect ambience
The perfect decorations
A memory worthy of inclusion in a Hallmark movie
She will make this the most magical family Christmas ever
No matter how many children she reduces to tears for it
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Algebra is not in the Bible
Jesus never said unto us, “Solve for X”
If algebra were real, the apostolic succession
Of bishops would have told us about it
(After 2,000 years of committee meetings)
I miss Bob Newhart
