Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Will He Borrow Augusto Pinochet’s Old Uniform?
While reviewing his troops from his high platform
Hup! Toop! Threep! Fourp!
Will Our Leader stand tall in uniform
Right shoulder HARMS!
Glittery with medals and a shiny firearm
Boom! Tiddy! Boom! Tiddy! Boom-Boom-Boom!
Swelling with pride in his goosestepping swarm
Ta-ra-ra-BOOM-dee-ay!
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Let Us Celebrate No Tyrants Day
“We have no king but Caesar!”
-A long-ago
mob as written in St. John 19:15
Even the King of Kings is
under the Law
And too, since Magna Carta, our
earthly King -
From the people and their voices
he can only draw
Such powers as their
assemblies vote to bring
But may God protect us from a
Common Man
Slithering to supremacy
through serpentine speech
Emboldened by the power of
cabal, club, and clan
Mobs chanting for their
master, a soul-sucking leech
God gives us His grace in a
King and Queen
Republics just give us the
guillotine
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Pushing the Envelope
What envelope is being pushed?
From whom to whom – across the room?
And why should it be pushed at all?
Is the envelope an English A-1?
An American business-size?
A birthday check for someone to steal?
Pushing a broom, pushing a sale
Pushing a pen – some sense in those
But what is the purpose in pushing
An envelope?
And did you stamp it?
Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Blueberry Portal
“In dreams the fool is free from
scorning voices”
-C. S. Lewis, “Dymer”
In the
drowsy, bee-sy afternoon
Picking
blueberries in the white-sun heat
Voices.
Conversation. But it’s only the bees
While
the blueberries dance and spin and whirl
What
do bees talk about? They don’t tell me
And I
don’t need to know – but we’re all friends
And the
dancing blueberries – they’re having fun
They
welcome me into another world
The leaves
write me little love-letters that say
How
happy to have you home for an hour today!
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
They’ll Be Kissing Someone Else’s Boots Next Year
I saw a cleaner landscape as I traveled today:
All the TRUMP flags have mysteriously gone away
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Garish On-Your-Face In-Your-Face Makeup at Twenty Paces
There are several forms of government:
Monarchy
Kakistocracy
Oligarchy
Autocracy
Democracy
Anarchy
But Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have given us
A new form of government via online spat
We’re ruled by cheerleader moms who shriek and cuss
So what is the scholarly Greek word for that?
Hey, red-caps, don’t start all-capping “WE’RE A REPUBLIC”; there is no pure democracy and no pure republic, and in common usage they are synonymous. Don’t just chant stuff you hear on the InterGossip. Read an ordinary high school textbook on government (maybe not an Oklahoma adoption, though).
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Pushkin-Cat
Long, lean, and lanky, he
slithers like a snake
With blue-grey fur; he makes
the mousies quake
But I haven’t seen him in several
days
He roams the woods and fields,
he hunts, he strays
He’s proud and brave, my handsome
Russian Blue -
Did he cross claws with a
treacherous Chartreux?
Did they exchange hisses at
just ten paces
Does his little corpse lie in
wild snowy spaces?
I hope his life hasn’t ended
like that
For I very much miss my dear
little cat
