My Bestest Friend in the Whole First Grade - an elegy

 Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

My Bestest Friend in the Whole First Grade

 

 

For Rodney Joe Webb

of happy memory

 

 

Our fathers’ farms were across the road from each other

We rode the big yaller feller to school

After the morning milking: Run! Run! We’ll be late!

And back again for the evening milking

 

We knew all sorts of stuff about battleships

And that Roy Rogers was better than Gene Autry

Chevy or Ford, and America could never be licked

Robin Hood and the biggest fish in the pond

 

The farms are long gone, and the fields of hay –

I went to his visitation today

The Parlement of Foules and the Parliament of Fools - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

The Parlement of Foules and the Parliament of Fools

 

The Parlement of Foules of whom old Chaucer wrote

Meet yearly on the Feast of Valentine

In Venus’ temple to negotiate

The noble rites of love and life and youth

 

The Parliament of Birds on my front lawn

In their several sub-species negotiate

Their seeds and crusts with outraged squawks and shrieks

But in the end manage to satisfy all

 

The Parliaments of Birds are of order and rules

But humans elect only Parliaments of Fools

After the Passing of the Bishop of Rome - quatrain

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

After the Passing of the Bishop of Rome

 

The first task of a bishop is to pray.

 

-Pope Francis, The closeness of bishops (20 September 2019) | Francis

 

I think I’m the only Catholic in all of Christendom

Who is not giving the Holy Spirit instructions

On whom to choose for the next Bishop of Rome

And, shut my mouth, I mean to keep it that way

What Do Little 'Possums Dream Of? - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

What Do Little ‘Possums Dream Of?

                            (I know, I know - Of What Do Little 'Possums Dream?)

My resident ‘possum was curled up cozily

Deep down in a stump over by the fence

Asleep, and like a little dog or cat

A-twitching happily in his ‘possum dreams

 

Of dung-beetles and corpses of dead birds

Dog food left carelessly outside overnight

Whatever awful offal the cat yakked up -

A buffet of delicacies for well-brought-up marsupials

 

Crawly-bugs and poops and snails and rattlesnake tails

Those surely are what little ‘possums dream of

A Meditation Upon the Cross of Saint George - poem

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

A Meditation Upon the Cross of Saint George

 

 

                                         But on his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore,

                                         The dear remembrance of his dying Lord

 

-The Faerie Queene, Book I, Canto I

 

 

A cross of red upon a banner white -

The Saviour’s blood that washes clean our souls

And leaves a stainless field of eternal peace

Where all may dwell in peace in God’s good time

 

No demon or dragon can alienate  

This sacramental flag from the unity of man

No diminuitives or false forbiddings

Can deny to any its unfailing glory

 

And thus

 

Let every man be God’s true Red Crosse Knight

Protective, brave, and humble under one true Light

Not Waiting for Godot - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Not Waiting for Godot

 

We pass much of our lives in waiting for things

 

Airplanes

Love

Christmas

Jobs

Answers

Mail

Spectrum Cable

You

 

Mostly, though, we wait for packages from Amazon

Maybe this time there will be happiness

Easter Monday: Did Anyone Think to Roll the Stone Back into Place? - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Did Anyone Think to Roll the Stone Back into Place?

 

Easter Monday

 

Did cemetery management offer a refund?

(High quality burials don’t come cheap, you know)

And what happened to the guards posted to that tomb?

Probably a disciplinary write-up

 

Easter Tuesday

 

Upper Room Inc. sent a bill for a missing Cup

(We can’t have people pinching stuff, okay?)

At least it wasn’t a fraternity party

And the taxes these days; you wouldn’t believe!

 

Easter Wednesday

 

This stuff about miracles just makes me scoff

(Say, boss, can I have this next Sunday off?)