You Were Dancing Up the Lane - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

You Were Dancing Up the Lane

 

In an old lawn chair I sat and dozed

And felt amber dusk sealing the day

Though I was weary and my eyes were half-closed

I heard you – you, whistling a romantic lay

 

You were skipping barefoot up the lane

Your skirt all a-dance for your heart’s desire

O Lady-Queen of our happy demesne

With flowers for me, your most devoted squire

 

I awoke, I blinked – I was all alone -

The sun had set on us, many years gone

 

But I saw you dancing up the lane…

The Church Garage Sale - doggerel

  

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

The Church Garage Sale

 

(Although the garage sale is in the parish hall because there is no garage)

 

 

A garage sale is a rebuke to us all -

The metaphysical finger having writ

Turns now from that lost Babylonian wall

And points at us as if to scribe this bit:

 

Why did you buy these masses of junk at all?

Candy-Colored Canes in the Waiting Room - doggerel

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Candy-Colored Canes in the Waiting Room

 

In the waiting room: rows of colored canes

Aluminum canes for the weak of breath and gait

For us who suffer from imbalance and pains -

We also swerve who only sit and wait

I Believe in Love, NOW STAY AWAY - poem

  

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

I Believe in Love, NOW STAY AWAY

 

In the tiny coffee shop all the tables were full

A man kept his table to himself

And would not acknowledge anyone

Defensive behind his deep-thoughts book

 

The rest of us shared our tables and space

Exchanging greetings, pleasantries, and thanks

Passing the cream and sweeteners and napkins around

All

Except for that one poor sullen man

 

On the cover was a drawing of a Christian dove -

His book was entitled I Believe in Love

Graveside Service on a Blustery Day - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Graveside Service on a Blustery Day

 

“The old order changeth, yielding place to new”

 

Tennyson, Idylls of the King

 

The widower assisted to his place

Mourners in unaccustomed dresses and suits

A bible, leaflets fluttering in the wind

And gangly teens unsure what they should do

 

February clouds roiling and boiling

Even the officiant’s words are blown away

Prayers lifted into silence by the wind

They may have fallen by the gravediggers’ tractor

 

Or were blown through the leaning chain-link fence

Into the deeply darkening Grendel-woods

 

But still – in back –

                                a boy and a girl shyly touch hands

The Problems with Self-Publishing - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

The Problems with Self-Publishing

 

The problems with self-publishing are self-publishers:

“Everyone just loves my book; tell me what you think

It’s about my cousin who was a Navy SEAL

And then became a millionaire and then a priest

 

“He saved the nation from nuclear warfare

In a mission so classified that we can’t talk about it

(But he told me all about it, of course)

And then he saved souls and counseled with popes

 

“My book is inspired by the Holy Spirit

So read it tonight and tell me what you think”

Has All the Gold Been Stolen from Fort Knox? - doggerel

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Has All the Gold Been Stolen from Fort Knox?

 

Elon Musk encouraged to crack open Fort Knox and audit the gold reserves

-New York Post, 16 February 2025

 

President Musk will now make an audit

Of the gold in Fort Knox, down to the dime

But all he will find (he may have already caught it)

Is the missing TP from the covid time!