Dispatches for the Colonial Office

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

Unknown Saint – 25 Cents

A little plastic statue of a saint

(In context, am I permitted to say “tchotchke?”)

A woman in white with a flowered crown

And a tiny crucifix in her tiny hand

She stood between a broken-bladed pocketknife

And an HO gauge caboose without wheels

There was a Barbie with her arms ripped off

And an I LIKE IKE button from 1952

The little saint now stands upon my shelf

Gently to remind me of my better self

The Unnatural Abhor a Vacuum - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

What Happens Now to Kristi Noem’s Warehouse Jails? - The Atlantic

The Unnatural Abhor a Vacuum

With their chatelaine gone all those warehouses

Sheeted in corrugated iron under the summer sun

And encircled, festooned, with razor wire

Stand empty in the desert, waiting for – you?

Their industrial disassembly lines

Scientifically designed to rip away lives

And lest they rust away from neglect and disuse

There must be bodies to feed into them

Starving on thin soup from stainless steel bowls

And pity the guards – who are starving their own souls

He Could Have Bench-Pressed a Honda - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

He Could Have Bench-Pressed a Honda

In his youth he could have bench-pressed a Honda

He posed with cheerleaders whom he was quite fond of

One seated on each arm, his muscles to flout

In photographs their grandchildren now wonder about

On the field of sport he could do it all –

His forward passes like lightning would fall

Many a massive lineman fell to his block

And many a quarterback to his gentle knock

He was the class stud; I was the class fool

He’s now a janitor at our old school

(And I’m still a fool…)

Saturday, March 7, 2026

We Haven’t Seen Good Ol’ Charlie Brown in a While - poem

Lawrence Hall

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

We Haven’t Seen Good Ol’ Charlie Brown in a While

Schroeder tickles the ivories for easy-listenin’

In the Gold Room over at the Airport Inn

Linus is Teacher of the Year at the middle school

Marcie built a chain of prosperous boutiques

Lucy waits tables at Franklin’s Lounge DeLuxe

Carefully counting her tips and tattoos

Frieda’s Kuts ‘n’ Kurls features the best gossip

Peppermint Patty is a professor at Penn State

We haven’t seen good ol’ Charlie Brown

Not since the district court judge pronounced his sentence:

“Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-WAH.”

Kristi Noem's Deportation Flight - doggerel

Lawrence Hall

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

Kristi’s Deportation Flight

The president decided that she

Is a clear and present pain

She needs to go away, said he

(But does she get to keep the plane?)

Inertia, and It's all Your Fault - poem

Lawrence Hall

mhall46184@aol.com

Inertia, and It’s all Your Fault

Draggy all through the sugar-cream-coffeed morning

Drowsing over a book while the lawnmower yawns

Idling over the news while the grass laughs at me

Ignored by the weeds in their insolent rows

Calvin and his work ethic haunt my idleness

Impatiently urging me to bestir myself

And accomplish something meaningful

In tending the Garden God has given

But

I think

I’ll doze in this lawn chair and dream of you -

After all, what else would you have me do?

Sunday, February 22, 2026

About a Question Pontius Pilatus asks of Himself - poem

Lawrence Hall

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