Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
They’ll Be Kissing Someone Else’s Boots Next Year
I saw a cleaner landscape as
I traveled today:
All the TRUMP flags have mysteriously
gone away
Saturday, June 7, 2025
They'll Be Kissing Someone Else's Boots Next Year - rhyming couplete
Garish On-Your-Face In-Your-Face Makeup at Twenty Paces - a poem of sorts
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Garish On-Your-Face In-Your-Face Makeup at Twenty
Paces
There are several forms of government:
Monarchy
Kakistocracy
Oligarchy
Autocracy
Democracy
Anarchy
But Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk
have given us
A new form of government via
online spat
We’re ruled by cheerleader
moms who shriek and cuss
So what is the scholarly
Greek word for that?
Hey, red-caps, don’t start all-capping “WE’RE A REPUBLIC”; there is no pure democracy and no pure republic, and in common usage they are synonymous. Don’t just chant stuff you hear on the InterGossip. Read an ordinary high school textbook on government (maybe not an Oklahoma adoption, though).
Pushkin the Poetic Cat - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Pushkin-Cat
Long, lean, and lanky, he slithers like a snake
With blue-grey fur; he makes the mousies quake
But I haven’t seen him in several days
He roams the woods and fields, he hunts, he strays
He’s proud and brave, my handsome Russian Blue -
Did he cross claws with a treacherous Chartreux?
Did they exchange hisses at just ten paces
Does his little corpse lie in wild snowy spaces?
I hope his life hasn’t ended like that
For I very much miss my dear little cat
Friday, June 6, 2025
Bishops Who Roar Like Lions - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Bishops Who Roar Like Lions
Your Grace:
There have
been bishops who have roared like lions
But your
demeanor is that of a house pet
Please rise from
your couch in Caesar’s triclinium
And return to
the streets to serve God’s people
What Did He Say? - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
What Did He Say?
She sat on the porch with her big orange cat
All cuddled up happily in her lap
When we arrived to drive her to an appointment
In a large building in the center of town
The doctor said something about stage 2
She had little to say as we drove away
And when we left her at her home again
She sat on the porch with her big orange cat
All cuddled up happily in her lap
Monday, June 2, 2025
The New Poets of England and America - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
The New Poets of England and America
Young poetry is the breath of parted
lips.
-Robert Frost, introduction
The New Poets of England and America
They’re no longer new;
they’re not even alive
Those post-war young voices
of strength and hope
Working through the
wastelands after men of destiny
Blitzed beauty with bullets,
bombers, and barbed wire
Some of them soldiers, and war-weary
all
They were worn out, but determined
and young
Digging out the words they
had hidden away
Cleaning them up for service
to humanity
They were young; they were
very much like you
Doing their duty as artists
and poets must do
The New
Poets of England and America
Ed. Donald
Hall et al
Introduction
by Robert Frost
New York:
Meridian Books, 1957
Sunday, June 1, 2025
The Texas Sanhedrin - doggerel
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
The Texas Sanhedrin
Sponsored by Sen. Phil King, a Republican from Weatherford, the bill requires every classroom to visibly display a poster [of The Ten Commandments] sized at least 16 by 20 inches. The poster can’t include any text other than the language laid out in the bill, and no other similar posters may be displayed.
-Ten Commandments in every classroom: Texas bill nearing law | The Texas Tribune
Our legislature suppresses the pilgrims’ way
They’ve established a government church; we must obey
And from its edicts free Texans dare not stray
(Though the lawmakers work on the Sabbath day!)
When Teachers Fold Their Leathery Wings and Sleep - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
When Teachers Fold Their Leathery Wings and Sleep
“This is the day the Lord hath made…”
When teachers fold their
leathery wings and sleep
Hidden away in their bat-cave
deep
In the darkness where foul
things lurk and creep -
Only then may children freely
laugh and leap
No more tiresome lessons
about “lie” and “lay’
A child may lie in the glass
or lay in the hay
Run out to the lawns and
fields to play
And joy in the freedom of
each summer day
The 20th of June?
A fallacious rule -
Summer begins on the last day
of school!
Saturday, May 31, 2025
I Miss Kosher Sam's - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
I Miss Kosher Sam’s
Wish I could remember what street it was on
It’s been so long ago, when Kosher Sam’s
Was my coffee shop, and I was young
One day I also ordered a slice of cake
The cheerful waitress asked me how it tasted
I suggested that maybe it was a little bit dry
She grabbed it up and rushed it to the kitchen
She and another waitress and The Sam Himself
They took clean forks and tasted and talked about it
They took more forks and tasted and talked again
And appeared to come to a mishpat at last
Sam brought to me what was left of the cake
“There’s nothing wrong with this,” he firmly ruled
I took and ate (tho’ it really was a little dry)
On an evil day I left San Diego
I wish I’d stopped to say goodbye to Kosher Sam’s
Monday, May 26, 2025
"At the Barracks Gate" - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
At the Barracks Gate
“Underneath the lantern by the barracks gate”
-Lili Marlene
There were two
lanterns at our barracks gate
After standing
inspection for Cinderella Liberty
We passed beneath
them to catch the Number 7 bus
Past Balboa’s
eucalyptus trees, into downtown
Where sins of the
flesh awaited our E-1 fantasies
But instead we went
to Mass, found a coffee shop
Nervously walked
along Lower Broadway
Tried desperately
to look like old salts
Carefully stayed
away from Lili Marlene
And ‘phoned our
parents from the lobby of the U. S. Grant
"And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea" - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
“And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea”
For A.V on the Happy Occasion of Her Graduation
I hope and believe that at Harvard still
In the springtime of their golden youth
Lovers sit upon the lawn’s green morning grass
Before class
and read Shelley to each other
At Mass the Young Again are Crowned with Mantillas - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
At Mass the Young Again are Crowned with Mantillas
A mantilla in its elegance
and lace
Frames forth the beauty of a
lady’s noble face
A gentlemen steps back a
courtly pace
Giving honour to his lady and
her crown of grace
Sunday, May 18, 2025
Just Making Fun of the U. K. Daily Mail Again
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Just Making Fun of the U.K. Daily Mail Again:
If It’s on The InterGossip it Must be True
Stop Running - Senryu
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Stop Running
1 Kings 19
Stop searching. Hold still
Rest now under a broom tree
And He will find you
Friday, May 16, 2025
The Evil of Banality Arrests You in the Street - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
The Evil of Banality Arrests You in the Street
As Hannah Arendt did not exactly say
Handcuffs with their metallic efficiency
Leather-holstered on polished kinky-belts
Distinguish more a grab with their subtle cachet
Than low-Prole zip ties in disposable bags
The wrists of citizens handcuffed without warrants
By an official wrist encircled with
The gift of a Rolex from Mister Big
Who will never countenance the arrest of his sons
Handcuffs should click as tastefully, you see
As the door of an unmarked SUV
Bring Me the Head of Peter Rabbit - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Bring Me the Head of Peter Rabbit
My little dog has gotten into
the habit
Of dining at dusk on
delicious rabbit
Last night she blitzed past
me as I opened the door
And left me a gift on the
bedroom floor
I blinked when I saw at the
foot of the bed
With its eyes still open – a poor
rabbit’s head
Luna-Dog looked up and pawed
at my knee
As if to ask, “Aren’t you
proud of me?”
I reminded her gently (no
need to fume)
That we take our meals
in the dining room
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Ghosted - Poem
Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatched for the Colonial Office
Ghosted
In the half-light before dawn I checked the mail
I don’t know why; maybe I was awaiting some truth
When shimmering on the MePhone’s sleep-obscured page
A message from a friend long dead appeared
He made a joke about the January moon
And mentioned a book he had begun to read
He asked about my slow progress through a book since misplace
And chided me for not keeping up with him
I want to find that book
Because on some happy morning beyond time
he will ask me about it
Monday, May 5, 2025
My Bestest Friend in the Whole First Grade - an elegy
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
My Bestest Friend in the Whole First Grade
For Rodney Joe Webb
of happy memory
Our fathers’ farms were
across the road from each other
We rode the big yaller feller
to school
After the morning milking:
Run! Run! We’ll be late!
And back again for the
evening milking
We knew all sorts of stuff
about battleships
And that Roy Rogers was
better than Gene Autry
Chevy or Ford, and America could
never be licked
Robin Hood and the biggest
fish in the pond
The farms are long gone, and
the fields of hay –
I went to his visitation
today
Friday, May 2, 2025
The Parlement of Foules and the Parliament of Fools - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
The Parlement of Foules and the Parliament of Fools
The Parlement of Foules of whom old Chaucer wrote
Meet yearly on the Feast of Valentine
In Venus’ temple to negotiate
The noble rites of love and life and youth
The Parliament of Birds on my front lawn
In their several sub-species negotiate
Their seeds and crusts with outraged squawks and shrieks
But in the end manage to satisfy all
The Parliaments of Birds are of order and rules
But humans elect only Parliaments of Fools
Friday, April 25, 2025
After the Passing of the Bishop of Rome - quatrain
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
After the Passing of the
Bishop of Rome
The first task of a bishop is to pray.
-Pope Francis, The closeness of bishops (20 September 2019) | Francis
I think I’m the only Catholic in all of Christendom
Who is not giving the Holy Spirit instructions
On whom to choose for the next Bishop of Rome
And, shut my mouth, I mean to keep it that way
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