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

                               The Daily Mail’s New Profits Plan

Go away, Daily Mail.  Go away, Daily Mail.
I’m not going to spend any money on you
I know that your clips are sweet
But my money clip is mine to keep
And my credit limit insists that I must be true

When you're demanding like this
You’re really easy to resist
Go away, Daily Mail
I won’t pay, Daily Mail
You’re just a clickbait away, Daily Mail
App delete, Daily Mail
I will not beg you to stay


Legal stuff about “Go Away, Little Girl,” a sweet, charming song:
Written by: Gerry Goffin, Carole King
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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

                    The Destruct Sequence Has Been Activated


                   Upon the occasion of suddenly feeling old  
                   while sitting comfortably in a lawn chair
                   on a rare warm afternoon in February


The destruct sequence has been activated:
The photon torpedoes have all been fired
The memory software is badly outdated
The phaser comm panel cannot be re-wired

The main drive has stopped; the batteries are failing
The passageways are blocked with fallen debris
The controls on the bridge are uselessly flailing
The ship is listing slowly, degree by degree

Everything aboard ship is antiquated –
The destruct sequence has been activated

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

                             In Praise of Lester Holt, Journalist

His journalism is Ernest Hemingway
His plain and honest words are Robert Frost
His elegance is that of Patrick McGoohan
His America is that of Sevareid and Murrow

His purpose is that the news be accurate
His care for others is Angola-true
His courage is modest but as adamant as steel
His is the reassuring voice in any storm

His boots were stained on Afghanistan’s plain
His bosses’ alligator shoes are stained
                                     with the mark of Cain

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

                                  Their Candles are All Out


                            “…There’s husbandry in heaven;
                              Their candles are all out...”

                                              -Macbeth II.i.6-7


Good men will tend to see the good in all
When Banquo was aware of the starless night
He saw in that not a lack of light  
But rather the careful conservation of light

And so we see this night, this rainy night
Not as a time of cold and darkness and damp
But an occasion for hearth-gathering the family
For cards, chess, read-alouds, blankies, warmth, peace

Good men will tend to see the good in all
And good must then on all of us befall

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

                    President Musk and His Five Bullet Points

I was a federal employee in Viet-Nam
(More than five bullets and mortar bombs)
No one in Washington demanded I document my day
Or offered to send me home early with eight months’ pay

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 as if to scribe in us this bit:

Why did you buy these masses of junk at all?

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

          The Self-Anointed King of America, Greenland, Panama,
          Gaza, Canada, Ukraine, and the Gulf of America Turns His
          Sallow Face to Rome


                     “Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!”

                                          -Macbeth II.iv.37


All of us must pass, but here’s the thing -
Who next will teach from St. Peter’s throne?
I am very much afraid that our warrior-king
Will anoint himself the Bishop of Rome