Dispatches for the Colonial Office

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

Some Clinical Notes on Anaesthesia and, Like, StuffZZZZ

A chair in the waiting room

A chair in a consulting room

A chair in a room where they rearrange your body parts

A blood pressure cuff that chuffs and puffs every few minutes

(And can you say, “sphygmomanometer?”)

(I thought not)

Clamps on your wrists

(Is the prisoner ready, chaplain?)

Steel trays of shiny steel things for cutting and drilling and clamping

A quest for veins. Not that vein. No, this vein. No, where’d it go…

Ouch

Let there be blood

Are you comfortable?

You’re going to start feeling sleepy

Grey floating boxes and conversations among them as they move about in an unreality which for the non-time-being are the / a reality and they’re nice enough little boxes but why are they grey and there is no fear and there is no pain but there is no control only grey floating boxes speaking to each other

Another chair in another room – how…?

And those are your post-procedure instructions…are you ready to go…?

I want a cup of coffee

Nothing hot until tomorrow

Sunday, February 1, 2026

The University of Granddaddy - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

The University of Granddaddy

Class meets on the wooden steps of the old back porch

Syllabus:

Talking. Listening. Whittling on a length of cedar

Please bring: a Schrade-Walden Old Timer pocketknife

Pale Shadows and seasons - poem

Lawrence Hall

A re-write and re-post of an older poem:

Pale Shadows and Seasons

Pale shadows and seasons and leaves drift by

The slanting sun of February falls

With merciless mortality upon

Our weak attempts to prepare for spring

The leaves we mulch today mulch us tomorrow

The roses we prune in anticipation of June

Await the night when we are pruned for them

While the wolf pack keens beneath the ancient moon

No, It Wasn't the Medications - poem

Lawrence Hall

mhall46184@aol.com

No, It Wasn't the Medications

Last night my friend and mentor was dreamed to me

He was himself again, and so was I

Among Spenserian fields and forests and friends

In a summer world all warm and green

In a time of waiting rooms and surgeries

Slow days of headaches and painful awkwardness

Appointments, lab reports, diagnoses

He came as a comfort, a vision of what will be

We did meet again, and we did smile

And so, just so, we all will meet again

Saturday, January 31, 2026

Maybe Winter is Tired - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

Maybe Winter is Tired

And taking a break for a few sunny days

Icicles have dripped and dropped away to earth

Merry breezes breathe away dawn’s drifting haze

A warm front soon after the new year’s birth

But even now the north drops down in greys

The shifting wind blows dark, decaying leaves

Away to prep for tomorrow’s icy glaze

As the wilding weather bobs and weaves

The paling sun drops coldly in the west -

False spring in its own turn now takes a rest

This is the Church House, This is the Steeple - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

This is the Church House, This is the Steeple

This is the church house

This is the steeple

Open the doors

And see all the…rioters, ICE, podcasters, snoops, gossips, busybodies, stirrers, activists, influencers, selfie-istas, agitators, provocateurs, disruptors, boors, instigators, trespassers, hecklers, hooligans, gorms, dips, loonies, stooges, vandals, protestors, patsies, and puppets

(One hopes they left a few coins in the poor box)

Friday, January 30, 2026

"A Republic, Madam, If You Can Keep It" - doggerel

Lawrence Hall

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

How Many People Didn’t Vote in the 2024 Election? | National News | U.S. News

“A Republic, Madam, if You Can Keep It”

-attributed to Ben Frankling and many others

Americans, please take time for reflection -

While watching the rioting we might take note

That in the last presidential election

35% of the people did not bother to vote

Antibiotic-Go-'Round - doggerel

Lawrence Hall

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

Antibiotic-Go-‘Round

The dermatologist cut away part of my ear

Truth!

The maxillo-facial surgeon cut out my impacted

Tooth!

They negotiate now which antibiotic to use

To void the chances of infection or bruise

“Gentlemen,” I say,

“Weigh each certainty against a doubt

But both the original ear and tooth are out!”

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Hecho en China - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

Hecho en China

New hiking shoes from Wal-Mart say what?

They say, “Cubierta de Cuero y Sintetico”

Does that mean

“Made by Prisoner X7741?”

“Made of Prisoner X7741?”

January - Soup and Peace for All - poem

Lawrence Hall

mhall46184@aol.com

January – Soup and Peace for All

As the winter winds flail, soup on the stove

Blessing the kitchen with all its summery scents

An all-morning bouquet of comfort and peace

Simmering against the grey and dreary cold

Sleet rattles against the window panes

Sharp ice metastasizes on the skeletal trees

But inside we ladle up happiness and love

With Momma’s prayers over each comforting bowl

Veggies and beef – could I have a little more, please?

As the old gag goes, visualize whirled peas!

Monday, January 26, 2026

It's All Anne Frank's Fault - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

It’s All Anne Frank’s Fault

Imagine escaping the brick-pits of Goshen

Trekking the deserts with Joshua and Moses

Learning the Commandments, feeding on Mannah

Crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land

Imagine chanting the Psalms, learning from Isaiah

Teaching Proverbs and Wisdom to your children

Telling the ancient stories while working the fields

Braving the adventures God has given us

Imagine stepping outside after Mass

After sharing the body and blood of the Christ

And complaining that all the world’s problems

Are caused by “th’ Jews”

Sunday, January 25, 2026

Thank You for Your Attention to This Matter - doggerel

Lawrence Hall

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

Thank You for Your Attention to This Matter

Both sides waving American flags

Bodies in the streets like bundles of rags

Saturday, January 24, 2026

Laundry on a Snowy Day - poem

Lawrence Hall

mhall 46184@aol.com

Laundry on a Snowy Day

Little fluffs of white floating through the air

Swirling and drifting and dancing merrily

Falling upon us as gently as a prayer

One landing on your nose momentarily

But this is not from the January snow

This puffy white stuff all over the floor

Because it has nowhere else to go

Except for Hoovering it up (a tiresome chore)

It flies from the dryer much like a rocket

Because

Someone always leaves Kleenex in her pocket!

Friday, January 23, 2026

The Coming Ice Storm - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

The Coming Ice Storm

Wood for the fireplace stacked inside and out

Sterno for the camp stove, bottled water everywhere

Batteries, portable radios, toilet paper, lanterns

The outside faucets covered with plastic and old towels

Bedding for the pets in the laundry room

Mothball-scented blankets disposed here and there

The questions come as quickly as the wind:

What if…? What about…? What if…? What about…?

The day is grey and darkens even more

As strange blue light falls upon us from the north

Can You Describe This? - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

Can You Describe This?

-Anna Ahkmatova, Requiem

Supplicants waiting in long lines in the snow

Hoping to give their children some sense of truth

Among the gassings of electronic screens

Protestors and federals bellowing in turn

The news blows in as Siberian flurries

Some flailing this way, and some trailing that

Footprints disappear among the drifts

Rasputin’s body might float up in the spring

Describe each human as a number, as a stat

“Truth?” sneered Pontius Pilate, “now what is that?”

“Can you describe this?” a woman asked Ahkmatova

“Yes, I can,” she spoke, she wrote, she lived

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

A Children's Bedtime Litany for 2026 - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

A Children’s Bedtime Litany for 2026

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

From the ICE-men who break into our homes and beat up our families

Deliver us, O Lord

From the anti-ICE who invade our churches on Sunday mornings

Deliver us, O Lord

From the ICE gunfire in our streets

Deliver us, O Lord

From the anti-ICE gunfire in our streets

Deliver us, O Lord

From the tear gas on our playgrounds

Deliver us, O Lord

From government-sponsored kidnappings

Deliver us, O Lord

From fires and looting

Deliver us, O Lord

From explosions in the night

Deliver us, O Lord

From strangers roaming around with guns

Deliver us, O Lord

From the unmarked SUVs that circle our block

Deliver us, O Lord

From the violence-pornographers who take our pictures

Deliver us, O Lord

Grant your children rest this night, O Lord

Or if we must be wakeful

Make the shooting stop

Amen

In the Name of…shhhhh!...they’re beating on the door…don’t let them hear you…

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

A Complimentary Tote - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

A Complimentary Tote

How very nice of you to check me out

Of all the things you could have bought today

You purchased a tote, which shows your good sense

And you picked me, which shows your good taste

Those are some great shoes you’re wearing

And your watch is a study in elegance

Proper dress is all about the accessories

I’m proud to be seen with such a classy lady

Wait – diapers? I gotta carry dirty diapers!?

And those dirty baby-bottom wipers!?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Combat Patrol on the Borders of the Empire - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

Combat Patrol on the Borders of the Empire

There were nasty people in the army; but…[e]very few days one seemed to meet a scholar, an original, a poet, a cheery buffoon, a raconteur, or at least a man of good will.

-C. S. Lewis, “Guns and Good Company,” Surprised by Joy

Muffle-armored like Heinlein’s starship troopers

What attributes of civilization

Can the soldiers of our armies carry

Carefully tucked into their pockets and packs:

Paperback poets, math reviews, Miss January

Letters from home, a Rosary, a Testament

A naughty little short-timer calendar

A creased photograph of someone special

What do young soldiers carry with them

When they are ordered to suppress

Their fellow Americans

Monday, January 19, 2026

Is There a "Board of Peace" for Minnesota? - poem

Lawrence Hall

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