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Dispatches for the Colonial Office


           Take Cover! We’re Celebrating Intellectual Achievements!


                         “These papers expired three weeks ago.
                          You’ll have to come with us.”

            -a colonial police officer to a refugee in Casablanca


Graduates meet to celebrate the joys
Of scientific research, music, art
Literature, cinema, theology –
Veritas et scientia for all

On shaded lawns in academic gowns
They exchange Shakespearean bon mots
And toast the future and good fellowship
While forming up for the processional

In fashionable scholarly regalia:
Flak jackets in academic colours

Lawrence Hall 1d
"And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea"
Lawrence Hall
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Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                               “And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea”


               For A.V on the Happy Occasion of Her Graduation


I hope and believe that at Harvard still
In the springtime of their golden youth
Lovers sit upon the lawn’s green morning grass
Before class
                           and read Shelley to each other

Lawrence Hall
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Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                       At the Barracks Gate


                  “Underneath the lantern by the barracks gate”

                                                 -"Lili Marlene"


There were two lanterns at our barracks gate
After standing inspection for Cinderella Liberty
We passed beneath them to catch the Number 7 bus
Past Balboa’s eucalyptus trees, into downtown

Where sins of the flesh awaited our E-1 fantasies
But instead we went to Mass, found a coffee shop
Nervously walked along Lower Broadway
Tried desperately to look like old salts

Carefully stayed away from Lili Marlene
And ‘phoned our parents from the lobby of the U. S. Grant

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Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                The Texas Sanhedrin


          Sponsored by Sen. Phil King, a Republican from Weatherford,            
          the bill requires every classroom to visibly display a poster [of
          The Ten Commandments] sized at least 16 by 20 inches. The
          poster can’t include any text other than the language laid out
          in the bill, and no other similar posters may be displayed.

                   -Ten Commandments in every classroom:
                    Texas bill nearing law | The Texas Tribune


Our legislature suppresses the pilgrims’ way
They’ve established a government church; we must obey
And from its edicts free Texans dare not stray
(Though the lawmakers work on the Sabbath day!)

We do not beg for peace —
The War-Men have no peace to give.
    Peace is yours, mine, ours.
        Peace is ready now.

.

poetkevinjtaylor

he taught me the wrong ways to love

his love was always a knife my throat

lost the definition of trust

is this all your love

is this what I need

as time tumbles by
eroding its rocky bed
of eternity
in the shallows
we create
pools of stillness
capturing handfuls
to refresh us

on cold January mornings
the pools ice-olate
into frozen moments
we sculpt into memories
until the reality
of springtime
puddles them
drip by drop
back into the current

...and so it begins,
rural against urban,
rich against poor,
change against established,
white against black,
privilege against opportunity,
proud boys against military,
prostitution against dictatorship,
both sides digging in
turning trenches to graves...

and so it never ended

the trees are still green

I have to whisper a lullaby

slowly they fall asleep

all the flowers will fall

the sky won't always be this blue

all the leaves will fall into my hands

I'm falling asleep

waiting for the cold rain