Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

              Stopping by Literary Criticism on a Snowy Evening

                      From an idea by a happy bumblebee

Whose Deconstructionist Narrative this is I think I know
Their (because we mustn’t say “her” or “his”)
New Criticism is on their podcast, though
They will not see me applying Phenomenology here
To help fill up their woods with Neo-Post-Colonialist blow

My little solar car must think it other-gendered
To pause while I Conceptualize without a Starbuck’s near
Between Foucault and Derrida here
Next to the Sapir-Whorf Theory, and without a beer

They give their location transponder a Derrida shake
To demand a formal apology for this cultural mistake
The only other sound’s the Existential creep
Of Masonic Catholic **** Zionism on the take

Judgmental stereotypes are flying, shallow and cheap
But I have an Inner Reality to keep
And an Intertextual Analysis of Post-Structuralism to steep
And an Aesthetic Objectification of Dialectics to steep

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                     Dust Devils on a Sunday Morning in August

                                (But this is not about dust devils)

The Road to Emmaus is asphalt now
Instead of dust devils spinning in the heat
The stench of curious chemicals flow
In shimmerings among the hovering oaks

Above the crisping-brown fields circling vultures
Seem focused on me – do they sense a decaying soul?
My great-grandfather drove a wagon to church
I have air-conditioning, and Chopin on the radio

The Road to Emmaus is asphalt now
But you still might meet a Stranger along the way

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

           The Shroud of Turin is True Again Today! Or Maybe Not!

                         The ghost of Amelia Earhart speaks

The U.K. Daily Mail examined the Shroud of Turin
And found Amelia Earhart wrapped up inside:
“Hey! This is my shroud for private buryin’!
So don’t just stand there, all goofy and bug-eyed!”

“You keep changing the place where you found my plane
And yesterday you said the Shroud of Turin is bogus
Today you say it’s real – you babble in vain
The ghost of me wishes you would find a focus”

The U.K. Daily Mail found Amelia Earhart’s plane –
Tomorrow they’ll be sure to lose it again

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

      A Bronze Plaque Commemorating the Trump-Putin Summit
                         at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson
                                            Anchorage, Alaska


                    On this spot on the 15th of August 2025

                                    Nothing happened

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                           Our Little Universities

                                          From an idea by Nivek

Many books are little universities
Complete with faculties and study halls
Grassy lawns on which to argue ideas
Syllabi written from your heart and mind

Laboratories of the mind for distilling wisdom
A concert hall of happy voices in song
“Pomes All Sizes” spoken from the heart
And maybe a Rain Tree on your walk to class

The Brothers Karamazov as a prayer book
300 Tang Poems with the wisdom of China
The Oxford Book of English Verse, edited by Q
                    (Not THAT Q!)
Doctor Zhivago in squabbling translations

And some have spoken most eloquently
                                                         for Goodnight Moon
And now what university of yours helps sing
                                                         your world in tune?

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                    Let’s All Meet in Cicely

                      From a dream that sailed from Thailand

Let’s all meet in Cicely before the snow
You can find me sitting outside The Brick
At peace as the gentle autumn breezes blow
Having put aside my hiking stick

Fleischmann joins us on that old wooden bench
Chris-in-the-Morning stops by for a beer
Hollings gives Shelly a husbandly pinch
She takes his broom and with it smacks his rear

Maurice and Maggie, Ruth-Anne, Marilyn, and Ed
Drop in with stories of love and life and history
And news brought in by plane and road and sled
To this Brigadoon of happy mystery

Let’s all meet in Cicely before the snow
And share in its peace before we go

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                               You’ve Read Your Last Free Article

Yes, I have.

(Click. Delete.)