Several of you have reposted my humble takeoff on "Star Light, Star Bright" to your collections, for which I am most grateful.  As in a skit on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE years ago I must plead, "I am not worthy!" But you are all so kind, and again I thank you.

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

                    The Moon is Setting in the West, And in the East...

Sun beam
Sun ray
First sun I see today
I wish I might
I wish I may
Have the wish I wish today


Cf. “Star Light, Star Bright,” a nursery rhyme of undetermined origin, dating to at least the 19th century.

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


                                 “This Is Not Who We Are”


                             -The Honorable Mike Johnson
                  56th Speaker of the House of Representatives
                                     10 September 2025


                     Well, yes, Congressman, I’m afraid it is

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

                                            Are You the Dream?

In the softly dreaming hours of night
Silver moonbeams charm us to the window
To look upon a sweet, mysterious world
Which we may not visit, but only see:

The happy, peaceful joy of tree and leaf
Of lawn and chairs, all silver and shadowy
And the table where we left that little book
We were reading to each other when soft dusk fell

We share the silver silence, the silver light
The silver softly dreaming hours of night

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

                                     An Appeal to Our Ancestors

When this is over

                    …slumped in their seats fidgeting nervously, they no
                    longer resembled the arrogant leaders of old. They
                    seemed to be a drab assortment of mediocrities. It
                    seemed difficult to grasp that such men, when last you
                    had seen them, had wielded such monstrous power, that
                    such as they could conquer a great nation…

                         -Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third *****

When this is over

Teach us democracy, the dignity of work
Help us restore the sacred arts we banned
The books we burned, the images we forbade
The poetry we purged, the plays we feared to stage

When this is over

Free us from militias in our streets
The Black Marias, the concentration camps
The Reichskirche imposed by our government
The censorship to which we weakly submit

When this is over

Free us from our fears, share with us your strength
That we will never empower tyrants again

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

                                        Pickles are Malevolent Beings

Pickles are mottled, mucusy, malevolent beings
Like slimy swamp creatures that just might bite
Not exactly the festive food of kings
But rather laboratory specimens that haunt the night

They lurk in layers in jars and bottles of glass
And peer at passers-by, evil in each eye
An amorphous, almost luminous mass
Seething and simmering in a silent sigh

I buy a jar as commanded, the cash register rings
But still
Pickles are mottled, mucusy, malevolent beings!

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


                                           And Your Word Is…?


                                          “The word is given!”

                  -John Derek as Joshua in The Ten Commandments


When all have gone to bed

You slip quietly into your room
And sit at a table bare of everything
Except for a solitary candle
A pen, a sheet of paper, a bottle of ink

You then write down your day, your acta diurnalis
Every action and thought, every glance and breath
Every hope, every failure, every fear
Every little victory savoured with delight

In only one word, a word, a glowing word –
What is that Word?