Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Stop Running
1 Kings 19
Stop searching. Hold still
Rest now under a broom tree
And He will find you
Sunday, May 18, 2025
Stop Running - Senryu
Friday, May 16, 2025
The Evil of Banality Arrests You in the Street - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
The Evil of Banality Arrests You in the Street
As Hannah Arendt did not exactly say
Handcuffs with their metallic
efficiency
Leather-holstered on polished
kinky-belts
Distinguish more a grab with their
subtle cachet
Than low-Prole zip ties in disposable
bags
The wrists of citizens handcuffed
without warrants
By an official wrist encircled
with
The gift of a Rolex from Mister
Big
Who will never countenance
the arrest of his sons
Handcuffs should click as tastefully,
you see
As the door of an unmarked
SUV
He Took a Photograph of an Unauthorized Number! - doggerel
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
He Took a Photograph
of an Unauthorized Number!
“Tear him to pieces; he is a conspirator!”
-First Plebeian, Julius Caesar III.iii.28
Can I avoid death threats if I simply say
I wish Mr. Trump would go away
To a luxurious golf course there to play
And peace on him may we safely pray
Bring Me the Head of Peter Rabbit - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Bring Me the Head of Peter Rabbit
My little dog has gotten into the habit
Of dining at dusk on delicious rabbit
Last night she blitzed past me as I opened the door
And left me a gift on the bedroom floor
I blinked when I saw at the foot of the bed
With its eyes still open – a poor rabbit’s head
Luna-Dog looked up and pawed at my knee
As if to ask, “Aren’t you proud of me?”
I reminded her gently (no need to fume)
That we take our meals in the dining room
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Ghosted - poem
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Ghosted
In the half-light before dawn I checked the mail
I don’t know why; maybe I was awaiting some truth
When shimmering on the MePhone’s sleep-obscured page
A message from a friend long dead appeared
He made a joke about the January moon
And mentioned a book he had begun to read
He asked about my slow progress through a book since misplace
And chided me for not keeping up with him
I want to find that book
Because on some happy morning beyond time
he will
ask me about it
Monday, May 5, 2025
My Bestest Friend in the Whole First Grade - an elegy
Lawrence Hall
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
Friday, May 2, 2025
The Parlement of Foules and the Parliament of Fools - poem
Lawrence
Hall
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
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