Monday, March 23, 2026

War Metaphor Guy - poem

 This is a variant on an old poem and so possibly a re-post


Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

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

Home - Hello Poetry

 

 

War Metaphor Guy

 

Does keyboard-war-guy truly mean that he

Will shoulder rifle, pack, and spares, and range

On blistered, bleeding feet into dead hell,

Obedient to an ill-considered oath

That calls upon his soul to deny itself?

 

How noble is his war -- upon the screen.

 

Does he intend to suffer sin-stained years

Of deprivation, lowest-bidder tins

Of surplus slime stored since some previous war,

Of murky water gassed with chemicals,

Of gasping, breathless, sodden, rotting heat?

 

How easy is his war -- upon the screen.

 

So does he really want a poor man’s soul

Ripped screaming, sh*tting, bleeding from his life,

Intestines flyblown in the devil’s sun?

Will he be satisfied with an eyeless corpse

Bloat-floating down another Vam Co Tay?

 

How glorious is his war -- upon the screen.

 

Now, keyboard war guy, march away, away

And how God wills, dispose the video games.

Sunday, March 22, 2026

Arnold Raced Out the Door - 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

 

Arnold Raced Out the Door

 

 

“The typewriter is holy…”

 

-Allen Ginsberg

 

 

As the opening credits appeared each week

Jessica Fletcher typed on her old machine

“Arnold raced out the door” - but we don’t suppose

That we will ever learn who Arnold was

 

And why he was racing out a door


(Angela, we miss you!)

He Simply Won't Do - 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

 

He Simply Won’t Do

 

Second of all, his name is Markwayne

 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

That Which was Mandatory is Now Forbidden - 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

 

That Which was Mandatory is Now Forbidden

 

 

    Let no images

     Be hung with Caesar’s trophies

 

-Flavius in Julius Caesar I.i.73-74

 

 

Now hidden are the statues of Cesar Chavez

His name, his fame, once celebrated everywhere

Were furtively cleansed in the dark of night

Lest any of his works live after him

 

He is closeted now in the basement of some museum

Playing poker with Abraham Lincoln and Columbus

While Mother Theresa and Winston Churchill

Exchange Shakespearean bon mots

 

The famous of the past are irrelevant, you see

 

Because

 

No one is as perfect as you and me

 

(Takeaway – from year to year I understand less and less)

The First Casualty of War - 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 First Casualty of War

 

Is a 19-year-old PFC

Coloring Outside the Lines - 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

 

Coloring Outside the Lines

 

If everyone is coloring outside the lines

Except one child, who is defiantly following a grid

Among those crayon trees and tomato vines -

Who, then, is the most imaginative kid?

Thinking Outside the Box, Bag, or Other Sustainable Rain-Forest Ethically-Sourced Container - 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

 

Thinking Outside the Box, Bag, or Other

Sustainable Rain-Forest Ethically-Sourced Container

 

 

If Everyone is Thinking Just Alike

They are Trump’s cabinet

 

Now let’s all go get tattoos

War Metaphor Guy - poem

 This is a variant on an old poem and so possibly a re-post Lawrence Hall Mhall46184@aol.com Dispatches for the Colonial Office LogoSo...