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

                              Science Experiments and Pirate Ships

                                For Gordon, of Happy Memory
                                 Whose Death Began in Viet-Nam

My boyhood pal’s home is now mostly gone
A concrete slab among some sunburnt weeds
The crumbling front-porch steps still stepped in place
But leading only to memories in the empty air

There where his bedroom laboratory used to be
We traded Heinlein stories and comic books
Experimented with chemicals and radio kits
And planned camping adventures that never were

His father was a widower who didn’t like either of us
But maybe that part of it doesn’t matter now