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

                                               I Have the Epstein Files

I carry the Epstein files in my pocket
A paperback edition from City Lights
You said you were going to hitchhike to Big Sur
With a dude named Gautama. I have the files

I thought you’d like to know

Lawrence Hall
377 followers / 133.3k words
Edit Profile
Stream2.9k Poems3.2k  Collections0 Favorites406

Lawrence Hall 5h
Highway Patrol
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                             Highway Patrol

An episode of Highway Patrol appears -
(With Broderick Crawford it should be widescreen)
Iron-jawed Bill Boyette as his sergeant
Today’s show features a passenger train

A man in a coat and tie, smoking a cigarette
Stops his DeSoto at a telephone booth
Wildly high fins (the DeSoto, not the telephone booth)
Inserts a dime and, turning a dial, he places a call

And Grandpa takes some time to explain
          All of this to his grandchild
The telephone, the tie, the passenger train

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

Highway Patrol

An episode of Highway Patrol appears -
(With Broderick Crawford it should be widescreen)
Iron-jawed Bill Boyette as his sergeant
Today’s show features a passenger train

A man in a coat and tie, smoking a cigarette
Stops his DeSoto at a telephone booth
Wildly high fins (the DeSoto, not the telephone booth)
Inserts a dime and, turning a dial, he places a call

And Grandpa takes some time to explain
          All of this to his grandchild
The telephone, the tie, the passenger train

(I was not able to format the alternating lines.)


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

                               Allegro – The Girl at the Piano


                                              Cf. Antoni Ditlef


An inexpensive lithograph from long ago

                    (Can you tell me what it’s worth?)

A beautiful girl in a red evening gown

             (But what’s it worth?)

In a picture of aspiration, of hope

             (Yeah, but is there any money in it?)

That our daughters will live accomplished lives

                     (I seen one on the internet for a thousand dollars)

And not as tatted Shelobs schlubbing on a couch

             (I need the money for a motorcycle)

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

                                          Hallowed be Thy App

               “…that unmistakable English church-going pace…
               holding, bound in black lamb-skin and white celluloid,
               the liturgies of a half dozen conflicting sects…”

                                -Waugh, Brideshead Revisited

One sees a Bible only occasionally
Even more rarely a Sunday missal
Which, with coat and tie and the mantilla
Are relics of a courtlier, more dignified time

The faithful now carry the scriptures as apps
The rosary the same (maybe next to Candy Crush)
An electronic conscience funded by an investment firm
And available at a low introductory price

A talking box - it must be Godly and true
And just as eternal as the Apple II

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

          The New Pastor Threatens the Congregation with Guitars

Our new pastor has visions, dreams beyond the stars
At Mass last week he informally presented
This suggestion: a choir. And guitars
But peace will still obtain, tho’ that twanging jars -
Guitars in church are why ear plugs were invented

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

        The New Pastor Threatens the Congregation with Guitars

Our new pastor has visions, dreams beyond the stars
At Mass last week he informally presented
This suggestion: a choir. And guitars
But peace will still obtain, tho’ that twanging jars -
Guitars in church are why ear plugs were invented