Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                     The World is Passing By


                      The curfew tolls the knell of parting day

             -Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”


Full moon at dusk, a walking stick, the lane
The neighborhood ‘possum on his supper hour
Bumbling and stumbling to see what the cats have left
Little frogs chanting their Vespers hymns in choir

The evening star as the sanctuary lamp
Advising us of the Presence in the rising mist
The ‘possum has not paused to give his thanks
So I will pause and give thanks in his place

Full moon at dusk, my walking stick, the lane
A fig for the world! This is what we gain

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                    In Anno Domini MMXXV
                    Pontius Pilate Asks Us a Serious Question

When Pilate asks us now, “Truth! What is that?”
He probably isn’t being sarcastic.

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                        Il Laura Loomer Ha Sempre Ragione!

Be a real American – buy Chinese
A true Trump Bible or American Eagle Jeans
The holy Nihil Obstat is Chairman Xi’s
The genes of the jeans are whatever President Loomer means



American Eagle Jeans: Where Are They Manufactured? | ShunVogue

Trump's 'God Bless the USA' Bibles were printed in China, AP review finds | AP News

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                       Another Texas Runaway Scrape


                   Why, Richard, what does it profit a man if he gains the
                   whole world but loses his soul? But for Chicago!

          -As St. Thomas More does not say in Robert Bolt’s fine play


The Democratic representatives fled; what woe!
That the Republicans did not also go!






Texas Democratic legislators flee state to protest GOP's redistricting plan - CBS News

Texas Democrats flee to Illinois to block Trump-backed GOP redistricting plan - Chicago Sun-Times

Texas Democrats break quorum | FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth

Will Texas Democrats be arrested for leaving the state? Here's what we know | khou.com

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                 The Widder-Woman Who Lives Down the Road

There’s a widder-woman who lives down the road
She used to work for a veterinarian
Whenever a stray tomcat comes to visit
She castrates it on her kitchen table

Sometimes she invites me over for supper

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                    A Visit to the (Euphemism)

             With Praise for The Sacred White Bowl of Our People

Several times each day the call of sanitation
Requires of each of us a digestive salutation
Within an appropriate private station
For needful purgation and evacuation

All of mankind, of every land and nation
Even Thracian, Haitian, Croation, Dalmatian
Must discreetly retire for a brief duration
To return to the earth a small donation

In this we must conclude, in explanation
From the indignity of the situation
With no exception, and no aberration
That Man is not the glory of God’s Creation

(All employees must wash their hands before returning to work)

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
Dispatches for the Colonial Office


                                Point-and-Won’t-Shoot Camera

The concept of the point-and-shoot camera obtains
But a Me-‘Phone camera doesn’t see it that way
I stopped to watch a bug-grazing bird
Who approached me as if she wanted to visit

I took out my Me-‘Phone for a photograph
And it didn’t recognize my handsome face
And I had to tap a four-digit code
And the bird grew suspicious and flew away

O Egret, in your beautiful brown and white -
I truly understand your need for flight