Dispatches for the Colonial Office

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

A Back-to-School Shopping Fantasy

Dialogue Log Log Between Two High School Students

“From my summer job I saved and searched and bought

This Keuffel & Esser 4081-3 Log Log Duplex Decitrig Slide Rule -

Now I control the numbers, touch the numbers

Bend the numbers to my purposes; numbers mind me”

“That is so old school!” He chewing-gummed in scorn

In adolescent scorn

“All I need is a calculator from Shanghai

It tells me what it wants me to know

And, hey, check out my new autograph sneakers!”

Ten Years Later

When she bid the engineering for the next Airbus

She did not hire him

Friday, July 17, 2026

"The Intoxicating Poetry of Belief" - poem

Lawrence Hall

mhall46184@aol.com

“The Intoxicating Poetry of Belief”¹

From an idea by a fellow scrivener

And for the fellowship of these electric pages

Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam

The liturgy is a poem

A hymn of the universe ¹

That was

And is

And forever will be

Spoken and sung

Sometimes we get lost in a volta

But it all comes together in the Consecration

And again in the L’envoi

We are the poem

We don’t have to get it right

Or know all the words

We are loved and sung

All the way to the end

And if we’re sometimes inattentive

Well

That’s okay too

The liturgy is not a got’cha

The liturgy is a gift

¹ cf. Anais Vionet

² Teilhard de Chardin

Is Your Life No More Than a Login Code? - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

Is Your Life No More Than a Login Code?

Login code: 209455 Your login code is 145180 Login code: 653777 Login code: 409641 Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address. 550: 5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try 5.1.1 double-checking the recipient's email address for typos or 5.1.1 unnecessary spaces. For more information, go to

5.1.1 https://support.google.com/mail/?p=NoSuchUser 586e51a60fabf-4044bd73886si3150986fac.144 - gsmtp

Thursday, July 16, 2026

Do I.C.E. Waiting Rooms Feature Coffee Machines and Kitsch? - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

Do I.C.E. Waiting Rooms Feature Coffee Machines and Kitsch?

Plastic Herbs in Physicians’ Waiting Rooms

Those photographs and paintings of bicycles

Leaning against sunlit Italian curbs

Are no more – now doctors’ offices

Are all about ceramic pots of plastic herbs

And coffee machines that pierce cute little cups

And brew up coffee with a soft low hiss

To serve you freshly-brewed pick-me-ups

That go so well with your diagnosis

New decorations, same old fluorescent lights

While scribbling out ideas for your funeral rites

Monday, July 13, 2026

Exit the Hurricane - Hurricane Harvey, 2017

possibly a re-post

Lawrence Hall

mhall46184@aol.com

Exit the Hurricane (not the catchiest title, eh?)

What is that silence? It is the not-rain
The first not-rain since Friday this past week
Every loud frog gloats in unseemly song
The old, sour water recedes from the door

The whole house stinks; it stinks of damp and rot
Of clothes unwashed because the drains are dammed
Of smelly shoes and even smellier socks
Of refugee gear flung casually about

The whole house stinks; it stinks of damp and rot
Of too many people – and isn’t it wonderful!

Has Anyone Counted all the Senators Today? - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

Has Anyone Counted all the Senators Today?

“Conspiracies Swirl”

Drudge, 13 July 2026

Conspiracies do not whirl

People swirl conspiracies

But has anyone counted

All the Senators today?

Thursday, July 9, 2026

Dragon in July - an attempt at haiku

Lawrence Hall

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

Dragon in July

A fallen dragon

Collapses on burning fields

Children breathe its heat

You are Now Leaving the ******** Sector - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

You are Now Leaving the ******** Sector

Please have your passport ready

Your proof of return

Your proof of financial responsibility

Your testimony of undying loyalty to the regime

Take off your shoes

Empty your pockets and place the contents in the plastic

tray

Don’t make any jokes

What is the purpose of your trip?

When were you last out of the country?

For what purpose?

Have you ever traveled to any of the following countries…?

Are you related to anyone in your country of destination?

How?

Are you carrying more than $100,000 in currency or negotiable securities?

Step into the curious machine

Step out of the curious machine

Please take off your belt and step back into the machine

Please step out of the machine and hold your arms high

Do you have a pacemaker or other electronic medical device?

Do you have a heart?

The wand is not intrusive

Stand on one foot

Now stand on the other foot

The patdown is not intrusive

You may proceed

When we stepped outside the ******** sector

We looked back and realized how small it is

If a Senryu Goes Bad - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

If a Senryu Goes Bad

Would a poem about

Committing an injustice

Be a SINryu?

(Apologies. I blame the heat. And fluoride. And jabs. And mysterious lights from Mars.)

Goodwill is my Couturier - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

Goodwill is my Bond Street

Joe Bidens for $2.50 at Goodwill

1950s happenin’ Foster Grants

I’m as cool as the former president

Hey, chicks and babes, check out my Subaru

A nautical blazer with buttons of brass

I’m as svelte as Patrick McGoohan

Okay, I’m twice the man he ever was

My secret agent waist is a danger, man

My couturier’s a thrill not on Blueberry Hill

But ‘way downtown, at the good old Goodwill

Tuesday, July 7, 2026

A Red Card? - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

A Red Card?

We will never give each other red cards

But how about a red maple leaf from Canada?

We could walk through Bowring Park in St. John’s

And watch the children play around Peter Pan

We will never give each other red cards

But like monarchs under bright red parasols

We could be the sovereigns of each other’s hearts

Along the Chao Phraya, the River of Kings

We will never give each other red cards –

But would you like a mischievous red balloon

And a morning in Paris?

Music: “Le Ballon Rouge,” Maurice Leroux

Monday, July 6, 2026

Humans - They're What's for Dinner! - doggerel

Lawrence Hall

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

Humans – They’re What’s for Dinner!

I lay me down to sleep tonight

I pray the Lord that mosquitoes won’t bite

I fear that my brand new bug light

Will draw them near without harm or fright

They’re free to dance and mock and buzz –

A live-and-let-live attitude

Is all that my new bug light does!

Saturday, July 4, 2026

A Complicated Affair of the Heart - a poem for Independence Day

Lawrence Hall

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

A Complicated Affair of the Heart

“‘My country, right or wrong,’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying.

It is like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober.'”

-G. K. Chesterton, The Defendant, 1901

At midday I finally posted the flag

After many hours of reflection and guilt

The bloody tyrant will think it is there for him -

But he cannot command our faithful hearts

His soldiers occupy our capital’s streets

Arresting citizens for crimes that never were

He wars against the nations while our Congress cowers -

But he cannot command our faithful hearts

That is not his flag over our still-standing ramparts -

For he cannot command our faithful hearts

4 July 2026

Criminally Made Algae - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

Criminally Made Algae

“The Reflecting Pool is now in full use after suffering great damage from Criminal, Radical Left Vandals, people that truly hate our Country…the criminally made algae is gone”

The President, 28 June 2026, numerous sources

A dripping-damp alley off a sinister street

Among the garbage cans and omnivorous rats

A series of coded knocks on an obscure door

“Psssst! Neville the Liberal Arts Graduate sent me”

Sinister doings in a dimly-lit lab

Chemicals and curious machinery

“We can’t get the chlorophyl balanced, Boss”

“The gamete-producing cells must be shipped at dawn”

“Algae, comrades, remember our purpose, our goal!

Algae, comrades, for the president’s toilet bowl!”

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

I Caught the Sun - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

I Caught the Sun

I’ll catch the sun, and never give it back again

-Rod McKuen, “I’ll Catch the Sun”

I caught the sun, but have to give it back

Always in memories, sometimes in bits of flesh

Once by square inches, now by centimeters

In the modern measurements of loss

We often caught the sun, shirtless and sunburnt

In the golden summers of our glorious youth

When solar radiation was good for us

While building bob-wire fences and working the fields

I once showed off my tan to pretty girls

But now only to dermatologists

“Bob wire” is the sweat-stained vernacular; “barbed wire” is the usage of people who never built fence.

The Empire of the Snail - haiku

Lawrence Hall

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

The Empire of the Snail

Pepper-climbing snail

Is grasped by the gardener’s glove

And then flung away

Thursday, July 2, 2026

Goslings and Quislings - haiku

Lawrence Hall

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

Goslings and Quislings

Die in a reflecting pool

Goslings have no choice

Sunday, June 28, 2026

Who Taught You How to Tie Your Shoes? - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

Who Taught You How to Tie Your Shoes?

(a rabbit and a cousin help)

Now when we learn to count our fingers and toes

Learn about laundry hampers and feeding the dog

Eat with a spoon, pick up our toys and clothes

And gently, gently touch the little tree frog

We must then teach another child

To laugh when she counts her fingers and toes

Learn about laundry hampers and feeding the dog

Eat with a spoon, pick up her toys and clothes

And gently, gently touch the little tree frog

Civilization is generational

Pass it on

Saturday, June 27, 2026

Is Life an Open Road or a Blind Alley? - short poem

Lawrence Hall

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