Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Mister, Are You Saved? - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

Mister, Are You Saved?

 

She patrolled the sidewalk and yelled at pedestrians:

“You sinners! You’re all a bunch of HELL-ions!”

 

I couldn’t escape her, so I smiled and waved

“Mister!” she yelled, “Do you think you’re saved!”

 

“No,” I replied (might as well be specific)

“Oh,” she said, “Then you’re a Catholic.”

 

I still have her tract, somewhere around here loose

Assuring me

                    that the Rosary

                                             is actually Satan’s noose

 

May God bless and protect street evangelists; as for Hegseth and his Reichskirche, well, they can go (bless) themselves.

Primrose-Cat and the Circle of Lunch - couplet

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

Primrose-Cat and the Circle of Lunch

 

Primrose is afraid of bluejays, and wisely so

She enjoys dining on the occasional cardinal, though!

Letters of Transit - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

Letters of Transit

 

Thanks to an idea from Omni and friends,

“Humphrey Bogart Blues,” Hello Poetry

 

There are always distracting macguffins in life:

A missing cufflink, Chekhov’s rifle, Tintern Abbey

An anonymous message torn in half

Letters of transit signed by General Weygand

 

But better are the letters of transit she writes:

Coded soul-maps in her sighs

Secret signals in her eyes

Her dreams revealed as this surprise -


The only true letter of transit is

Her love

Monday, June 15, 2026

A Three-Part Educational Case Study - poem

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

A Three-Part Educational Case Study

 

1.

 

I noted that he was ambidextrous

“You can’t call me that; I’m straight!

I’m gonna tell my daddy what you said!”

 

II.

 

At graduation he asked me to help him with his tie

A manly handshake; we wished each other well

He disappeared among the cheap plastic gowns

 

III.

 

Before he was thirty he died of a heart attack

 

A Celebration of Freedom and Our Flag - doggerel

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

y

 

A Celebration of Freedom and Our Flag – Gramps’ Champs

 

 

“’Cause the flag still stands for freedom”

 

-Lee Greenwood

 

 

Will the Flag Day bloodfest hosted by Gramps

In the name of freedom, with MMA champs

Be broadcast to America’s

 

                                     concentration camps?

The Boy Who Wasn't There - poem

 Lawrence Hall

mhal46184@aol.com


The Boy Who Wasn’t There

 

He was tall and dark, dramatically handsome

I was a little bit afraid of him

In my skinny little freshman way

High school seniors are the coolest of the cool

 

And then he wasn’t there except as whispers

Whisper whisper whisper cancer whisper whisper

Algebra whisper pep rally whisper

Occasional whispers around an empty desk

 

One day

 

He returned to school on two crutches and one foot

He was tall and pale, ethereally handsome

 

And after that, like a wraith he disappeared

Sunday, June 14, 2026

The Drum-Song of the Cicada - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love

Home - Hello Poetry

 

The Drum-Song of the Cicada

 

 

The cry of the cicada
Gives us no sign
That presently it will die

 

- Basho

 

 

Cicadas are living drums singing the summer

Self-rattling so fast that the beats become a buzz

A whining buzz that intensifies the midday heat

Through thin-throbbing tympanic hypnotism

 

Rising and falling, the leaf-borne chorus

In defiance shrills against the peace

The blessed peace of leaves and lawn and sky

That properly belongs to summer days

 

Even so, summer days, all summer long

Are not complete without the cicada’s song

Mister, Are You Saved? - poem

  Lawrence Hall Mhall46184@aol.com Dispatches for the Colonial Office LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literatur...