Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Resolution
for a New Year – or for a New Life
Perhaps dear old Puddleglum, who burnt his feet
When stamping out the fires of wickedness
Made a fine new year’s resolution with
“I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can.”
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
A Little New Year’s Magic for You
A far frosty field
Full fit for a fairies’ dance
‘Neath the New Year’s moon
Lawrence Hall & Nyquil ™
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Cuddled up with Cold Medicine and a
Warm Dachshund
A January
lawn is a desert of desiccated leaves
Winter
winds driving them as desolate dunes
Shoaling
against the oaks who gave them life
Then in
the autumn watched them fall to their deaths
Croakery
crows almost seem to splash among them
Searching
out seeds and corn and kitchen scraps
In
beak to nose confrontations with squirrels
Darwinians
struggling upon the sleeping earth
A January
lawn is a desert of desiccated leaves
As winter
winds batter my window eaves
Addendum:
(Each
line is framed with a cough or a sneeze
And fever
one minute followed by a freeze
And a
wheeze!)
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Meditation upon a Starlit Northern Sea
The sea is black, the sky is midnight blue
The crowning moon and her cold, pendant stars
Call color to fall upon the shoreline sand and snow
And too upon a silent Dreamer who stands
A silent Dreamer privileged to view this scene
Who stands upon this mysterious Arctic shore
To place for us our hopes beneath the stars
And yield them to the mysteries of the night
The sea is black, the sky is midnight blue
And the silent Dreamer is who else but…?
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
If This Were Your Real Life
You Would Have Been Given Better Instructions
This is only
a test -
if this were
your real life you would have been given better instructions
-seen on a
bumper sticker
I took my cough to a plastic plaque
My wheezing and sneezing and headache too
My unaccountably rigidy back
And sputum that reeked like a witches’ brew
I waved the little cotton probe all through
My nostrils where the wicked virus lurked
And then I thoughtfully dropped five drops unto
A window in the plaque, and, lo! It worked!
I don’t have the covid and I don’t have the ‘flu
So why do I feel so blown-out blue!
(N.B. I take my medical advice from my brilliant nurse practitioner, not from the InterGossip nor from Robert Kennedy.)
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Not Herod’s Household
Cavalry This time
The Holy
Innocents
Not Herod’s household cavalry this time
His personal SS with their spears and swords
From screaming children ripping their sacred lives
And flinging the tiny fragments into the dust
Now Herod sends his tailored representatives
With silky-soft, serpentine promises
Would you like a dress as nice as this?
For only an hour or two of easy work
Softly now
Don’t worry; your parents will never know -
Because they will never choose to know
Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Sneeze Across Texas
(widespread respiratory infections in Texas during Christmas 2025)
I would almost rather gnaw off an arm than endure what passes for contemporary country music. By the Grace of God we will always have the authentic work of Ernest Tubb. One of his best is “Waltz Across Texas.”
When we cough together under Texas skies
It’s rather a nightmare that has come true
And when you look at me, with those red, rheumy eyes
I could sneeze across Texas with you
Sneeze across Texas with you and our virus
Sneeze across Texas with you
Like a medical movie ending but with no one to admire us
I could sneeze across Texas with you
My rhinorrhea just won’t be gone
The moment that you come in view
And with our soggy hankies we could wheeze on and on
I could sneeze across Texas with you
Sneeze across Texas with you in my arms
Cough across Texas with you
Like a bad novel ending I'm semi-comatose in your charms
And I could sneeze across Texas with you
NB: “Waltz Across Texas” is the property of its several authors, musicians, and copyright holders. Respect.
