Eulogy for Mary

It is what I was born for--/to look, to listen,’ to lose myself/inside this soft world 
- Mary Oliver

It is a midwinter day

and I read a poem by you

where an end date

follows your name.

Some unspeakable sadness

drops through me.

Just moments ago,

I watched a coyote

stroll by the fishpond

as if she had no reason

for rushing today.

Up the hill,

a patch of rosemary

has burst into a wild layer

of blue blossoms,

dressed in a fine net

of spider silk and mist.

Tonight, a multitude

of souls will listen

to the midnight calls

of a Great Horned Owl,

read the calligraphy

of the stars, and wonder

at the blessings

sown deep inside

the words you have left us.

© Debbie Hall

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet Mary Oliver Dies at 83

Debbie is a psychologist and writer whose poetry has appeared in a number of literary journals. She is the author of the poetry collection, "What Light I Have" (2017, Main Street Rag Books).

La Bella Confusione, or The Trump Administration as a Fellini Movie

            Making sense has been declared a capital crime

for the next eight years, punishable by hanging. Wall Street

CEOs impersonate priests in order to rob the peasantry, who

are given red hats in exchange for their food stamps.

            Salvador Dali paints Trump’s portrait. Trump’s face

is hard to make out, blending in as it does with the orange

color wall in the Oval Office. Clocks melt behind him and run

only backwards. Outside

            at a press conference, men dressed in clown suits

ride unicycles while juggling golf balls. Some of the golf balls

fly off, knocking out reporters who ask impertinent questions.

The reporters are officially declared to be “collateral damage”

in the war on fake news.

            Tired of sitting for his portrait, Trump raises Marilyn

Monroe from the dead, rushes a bill through Congress making

polygamy legal and takes her as his second wife.

            Melania, bored with her anti-bullying campaign, offers

workshops on comportment to high school girls. Those scoring

in the top 1 percent will advance to apprenticeships as Handmaids.

            Over-stimulated by THE BEST SEX EVER IN HISTORY

with Marilyn, Trump consumes all of the bandwidth in the Twitter

universe. The tweets normally carried by small blue birds are

delivered –in repeating refrains—by pterodactyls wearing

long red ties. Citizens flee for underground shelters to escape

the unusual amount of excrement falling from the sky, and begin

to pray.

© Debbie Hall

Inside Trump's Hour-by-Hour Battle for Self-Preservation

Debbie Hall is a psychologist and writer whose poetry has appeared in a number of literary journals. She is the author of the poetry collection, "What Light I Have" (2017, Main Street Rag Books).