They. Learned. To. Code. - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

They. Learned. To. Code.

 

14-year-old boy identified as victim in University of New Mexico dorm shooting

 

 

I call, therefore, a complete and generous education, that which fits a man to perform, justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war.

 

-John Milton, “Of Education,” 1644

 

 

Learn. To. Code. is the fashionable chant

Staccato’d in every callow response

Make. America. Great. through cliché’ and cant

To force a lath-and-plaster renaissance

 

The Great Conversation of books and thoughts

The Great Dialectic of civilization

Are now toys, guns, and video games, all for nought

Ferality within a generation

 

Within a generation, within a blink

They. Learned. To. Code.

                                       They did not learn to think

The Apex Predator - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

The Apex Predator

 

They…

Have watched me rise from the darkness of war

Dripping with my enemies’ blood

 

-Beowulf, trans. Raffel, lines 151-153

 

 

The apex predator feeds upon the flesh

Of those who wanted desperately to live

To hew and chew and gnaw and digest and mesh

With those who died with no desire to forgive

 

The apex predator feeds while others starve

The sentient flee from him in grievous fear

But he always wins, his victims then to carve

In bloody fields and haunted forests drear

 

War ends violently in drang und sturm

And the apex predator is obviously

                                                          The Worm

We Ask Everyone to Respect Our Family Privacy at This Time - poem about the guy who bit the head off a bat

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

We Ask Everyone to Respect Our Family Privacy at This Time

 

“Our family privacy” – people keep saying that

A friend came over and mowed my rankling lawn

Because finding a lawnmower mechanic these days

Is like searching for a unicorn in a shopping mall

 

Their family privacy – I’m blessed with friends

But lawnmower mechanics seem to be extinct

The temp today was 98 at noon

Nobody chants “Learn. To. Code.” anymore

 

Their family privacy – chicken pot pies

Are on sale at Brookshire’s for 88 cents

I’ll mail all those bills this afternoon

That’s a really nice shirt you’re wearing today

 

Their family privacy – a middle-aged woman

Sheds tears upon an altar of VHS tapes

 

In privacy

A 5-7-5 About Listening to Your Body - yes, a 5-7-5, unworthy of a senryu

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

A 5-7-5 About Listening to Your Body

 

I listen to my body

All day, all night (Mary Ann)

If I eat too much

Piso Mojado Sounds Somewhat Vulgar - rhyming doggerel

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Piso Mojado Sounds Somewhat Vulgar

 

Piso mojado en Tejas y Colorado

Does not exactly trip from my English tongue

Cuidado that floor in El Dorado

For piso sounds slippily close to dung!

Loose Vowels - not really a poem

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Loose Vowels

 

A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y – why?

(Asking for a dipthong)

The New Pastor Threatens the Congregation with Guitars - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

The New Pastor Threatens the Congregation with Guitars

 

Our new pastor has visions, dreams beyond the stars

At Mass last week he informally presented

This suggestion: a choir. And guitars

But peace will still obtain, tho’ that twanging jars -

Guitars in church are why ear plugs were invented

Betrayed With a Kiss-Cam - poem

  

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Betrayed With a Kiss-Cam

 

 

And the sunlight clasps the earth

And the moonbeams kiss the sea:

What is all this sweet work worth

If thou kiss not me?

 

-Shelly, “Love’s Philosophy”

 

 

A kiss is just a kiss, as Dooley Wilson sang

In a Casablanca that never was

A kiss to give one’s life a bit of tang

A kiss to set a lonely heart abuzz

 

But great unwashed mobs stacked in their masses

Close-looped in a failed sub-culture of dust

Metal in their noses and tattoos on their asses

Can never find truth without a trace of trust

 

For love can never depend upon

The vigilante cruelty of a jumbo-tron

 

 

Tech company Astronomer launches investigation into 'kiss cam' moment at Coldplay concert - ABC News

The Crown of Rachel - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

The Crown of Rachel

 

 

From an idea inspired by Nat Lipstadt while we discussing something else

 

 

A dream about our teacher Akiva of Yavna

When the Romans took a respite from murdering us:

In our youth we approached a little house

Though we were tired from following the goats all day

 

Akiva was tired from tending his beans

And from Jacob-wrestling with great ideas

But he smiled and asked what he could do

Do for us little children bubbling with questions

 

“I am inventing the synagogue,” he might have said

“What is a synagogue? A new kind of Temple?”

“It is a machine for learning, a temple of the mind

A school, an altar upon we sacrifice our ignorance”

 

“But the Romans won’t let us sacrifice anything”

“Sometimes” said Akiva wryly, “they sacrifice us

But in the synagogue we will have a little light

Light and Torah and learning, always learning”

 

“We want to learn.”

 

“Oh? And what do you want to learn?” he asked of us

 

“We want to learn.”

 

He smiled and sat us at a table under his vines

“I learned to read when I was forty,” he said

As he took out a tablet and a stylus

One of us said, “I can’t imagine being that old!”

 

Our teacher smiled, smoothed the day from the wax

And instructed us to attend to the Word

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”

That is what he said, not what he wrote in the wax

 

Akiva prayed, he prayed for us, and wrote

And in the wax the letters formed as fire

As gold and fire:

 

“Bereshit Bara Elohim…”

A Cure for the Common Scold -doggerel (thinking of the cast of the Harry Potter films)

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

A Cure for the Common Scold

 

For ___________________________

 

With wisdom, age, and experience a man

Comes to appreciate that most useful tool

and the entertainment value as part of the plan

In the sadly-neglected ducking stool

1970 - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

1970

 

When I came home I was asked by a boyhood friend

“I haven’t seen you lately; where have you been?”

 

I’m still wondering about that

Death Falls Apart in White - poem

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Death Falls Apart in White

 

Snow does not fall in July, and yet there is white

White falling like large snowflakes or small flower petals

White scatterings across the summer lawn

Ghostly among the leafy sheltering oaks

 

The hawks are back

 

An egret about her business of bugs and snakes

Sudden violence high up in the gentle air

Flesh and life claw-ripped, torn, and devoured

Unheard below, only feathers falling like snow

 

The hawks are back

 

This artificial paradise of feeders and seeders

And flower-bordered lawn is a scape of death

From which the gentle rabbits, birds, and squirrels

Withdraw in silent fear

 

The hawks are back

The Last Nights of Club Ozymandias - poem

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

The Last Nights of Club Ozymandias in San Diego

 

 

Shelley always makes one think

(often about how to pronounce his middle name)

 

 

I met a tout along a darkening street

Who said – “two trunkless legs of neon dance

There, upon that wall, on neon feet

An electromechanical contrivance to prance

 

In remnants, but wiggling hips and pouty lips

Tell that the artisan well caught the lust

Of lonely sailors as a pretty girl strips -

In time those young men and the dancer will be dust

 

These letters appear, written in cold fire:

I am the Queen of Club Ozymandias

Look upon me with your hot desire

Look upon me, and imagine us…

 

Tomorrow all will be leveled

 

A housing estate will arise, a planner’s scar

Nothing will remain of laughter and drinks

Of sailors flinging their pay upon the bar

For a dancing girl now silent as the Sphinx”

Highway Patrol - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Highway Patrol

 

An episode of Highway Patrol appears -

(With Broderick Crawford it should be widescreen)

Iron-jawed Bill Boyette as his sergeant

Today’s show features a passenger train

 

A man in a coat and tie, smoking a cigarette

Stops his DeSoto at a telephone booth

Wildly high fins (the DeSoto, not the telephone booth)

Inserts a dime and, turning a dial, he places a call

 

And Grandpa takes some time to explain

To his grandchild

The telephone, the tie, the passenger train

I Have the Epstein Files - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

I Have the Epstein Files

 

I carry the Epstein files in my pocket

A paperback edition from City Lights

You said you were going to hitchhike to Big Sur

With a dude named Gautama. I have the files

 

I thought you’d like to know

Hallowed be Thy App - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Hallowed be Thy App

 

“…that unmistakable English church-going pace…holding, bound in black lamb-skin and white celluloid, the liturgies of a half dozen conflicting sects…”

 

-Waugh, Brideshead Revisited

 

One sees a Bible only occasionally

Even more rarely a Sunday missal

Which, with coat and tie and the mantilla

Are relics of a courtlier, more dignified time

 

The faithful now carry the scriptures as apps

The rosary the same (maybe next to Candy Crush)

An electronic conscience funded by an investment firm

And available at a low introductory price

 

A talking box - it must be Godly and true

And just as eternal as the Apple II

Will CBS Now Broadcast from Fox Studios? - poem

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

 

Will CBS Now Broadcast from Fox Studios?

 

 

Every morning the editors of the Berlin daily newspapers and the correspondents of those published elsewhere in the Reich gathered at the Propaganda Ministry to be told by Dr. Goebbels or by one of his aides what news to print…

 

-Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 245

 

 

CBS is now as obedient as Fox

Who would have imagined? Who woulda thunk?

Government agitprop on every Orwellian box -

Shoveling deep rund into our funk

Texas Children Die; Texas Authorities Babble - takeaway from a press conference of 5 July 2025

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Texas Children Die; Texas Authorities Babble

 

The governor’s Press Conference

In Which the Press were Shut Down Pretty Quickly

 

I just can’t say enough about our colleagues I just can’t say enough about we are Texans and we come together as one as a family we come together community share quintessential Texas we unite they could have fallen apart double-down relentless when the job is completed 24/ 7 day and night Texans and Americans everyone what I’m going to sign today every asset magnitude process proclamation immediate and ongoing gratitude in advance to President Trump and all his administration his love for Texas I want to thank Governor Abbott absolutely devastating he loves Texas grieving beautiful children all the resources of the federal government walking alongside each other community I’ve visited with the president already he will honor that assets on the ground crisis weather event alerted airframe Coasties Texas assets request customs and border protection skill set resource Department of Homeland Security response flying acronyms entities utilized FEMA standing at an enhanced level plugged in engaged fulfil role amazing you are an example to the nation hearts are with you and walking beside you fixed-wing aircraft airframe helicopters fixed-wing helicopters efforts engaged talking to the president throughout the day families folks number one priority is people process public infrastructure strong you are an example responding helping neighbors hurting grieving God process help prayers are with you President Trump and Melania are praying for you prayer amazing multiple stage agencies partners my thanks to and to and request and thank you for being here an important message I’ve been to a number of disasters impressed with Governor Abbot’s leadership proud grateful for men and women standing behind us here we are all reacquainted rejoined with their family members it’s who your family is we come together as a family as Texas this is who our family is we owe it to them the governor and his team will be relentless family it means a lot we appreciate President Trump and you before I was crazy enough to run for congress ha ha we came down here to blah blah it hits home personally I can’t say enough about extraordinary I can’t say enough I can’t say enough leadership this unfortunate circumstance reached out responding Army corps support and other stuff teamwork collaboration far from finished the job prayerful stuff we’re dealing with finger-pointing and second-guessing and Monday-morning quarterbacking circumstances I understand that parents and media heroic efforts finish the job be with the people pray I’m the only one at this table who lives on the Guadalupe River I barely got home I ushered in a crew fifty-year lawyer I saw first-hand the body bags helicopter ride nobody saw this coming arm in arm hand in hand process time now for recovery toilsome task stay together and we’ll get this done thank you on the behalf of as I look around the room I don’t see differences I see one team working together our community one team those in peril those who are lost sees this day prayer thank God my heart is broken we will not stop Madame Secretary your federal team lifesaving we will our teams FEMA border patrol partners Coast Guard work forward state personnel one last thing most common word prayer prayers are answered in so many ways prayer might be the reason the water stopped rising prayer does work your prayers have made a difference continued prayers pray so much never imagined prayers matter we thank God almighty God has blessed Texas…

 

(A few reporters were then allowed to ask a few questions which were, at best, answered only with vagaries and filler-language.)

Note of 8 July. Stephania Jiminez says it much better than I ever could:

KSAT anchor goes viral for 'speaking the truth' about Texas leaders

But, Hey, No King Here - poem

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

But, Hey, No King

 

The most lawless ruler is a Man of the People

Posturing upon some whited balcony

His pouting lips frozen in a perpetual sneer

While his toadies cheer their bondage, and call it freedom

 

The semi-automatic rifle is their Bible

Barbed wire is their semi-automatic law

The Constitution is but the president’s whims

(Let us now pray

for his bowel movements today)

 

Congress and the Supreme Court with feet of clay

Await in fear, in disgrace, in moral decay

For a Murat to come and brush them away:

 

“Citizens, you are dismissed.”

If My Daughter Had Been Present at the Last Supper - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

If My Daughter Had Been Present at the Last Supper

 

And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to his disciples, and said: Take ye, and eat. This is my body…”

 

-Saint Matthew 26:26-29, Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition via Bible Gateway

 

And my daughter said unto our Lord,

“Excuse me…excuse me, Sir, but is this matzoh fresh?

Did you check the expiration date?

Is it really kosher?  Is it from a fair-trade source?”

 

 

(Judas has left the building.)

A Walk Between Worlds - poem about Alzheimer's

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

A Walk Between Worlds

 

Stage 2 Alzheimer’s

 

She walked into our house for lunch today

The puppy gamboled at her feet in welcome

And was treated to doggie-kisses and doggie-hugs

She loves the dog

She is no longer sure about us

Laundry Day - The Solemnity of All Stains: poem

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Laundry Day - The Solemnity of All Stains

 

The washing machine baptizes our busy days:

A shirt freshly stained with this morning’s coffee

Wrinkledy tees in grimy greens and greys

A child’s blue jeans all sticky with toffee

 

Dish towels we allowed to get old-food smelly

A nice dress sock on which the puppy peed

Blankies from the couch in front of the telly

The terry-cloth that toweled the shaving bleed

 

In the laundry room where all these wreckages convene

There to be made all fresh and bright and clean –

 

Let us give thanks for the washing machine!