I owe, I owe it's off to work I go
The debt is piling up the dollars come so slow

It looks like I took a turn for the worse
I hit a fork in the road and come down with
some kind of voodoo curse

These monetary blues I do detest
They've taken away my happy-go-lucky
and put me under house-arrest

My muse she flew out the door and is on-the-run
Screaming over her shoulder, it ain't a crime to be unhappy
but it isn't any fun

I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go
The debt is piling up and the dollars come so slow

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

                                         Short Flippy Skirts


                       Yes, autumn is really the best of seasons…

                                -Lewis, Letters of C. S. Lewis


Given my age I should not be given to notice
Short flippy skirts and Bambi-deer long legs
That flutter by like summer butterflies
Joyful in the innocence of youth

Then sighs, custody of the eyes, look up
Look back to our summers long ago
When we were the coolest of the cool
Bell-bottoms against the Establishment

Ever-young and maxing out Peter Max
We owned beauty and truth (and those are the facts!)

Somewhere tucked on a bookshelf is a book.
Dogeared, yellow pages with a hand written note.

In a box, lie trinkets — gifts, a pendant of Annie, a book mark.
Hand made cards, smudged with time.

An old doll almost intact,
Broken spectacles, pictures, a watch and postcards.

Some may call it clutter, junk —
And it’ll all go when I go.

But to me, they are the reason behind my smile, an odd tear.

More precious than collectibles or art —
They are pieces of my life,
My world and heart.

Did I step on a butterfly once in my youth
That I must live in such pain today

Did I not reach out to someone in need
That my days are now crowded with hurting.

Did I never walk for that extra mile
That each step today is a torment.

Did I not study the course close enough
That agony is what I have to learn.

Have I earned a lifetime of level-nine days
When to be only aching becomes a reward.
                 ljm

World War III was a pity
nuclear destruction
***** and Gomorrah
Babylon the last city

World war; IV, V,VI
skirmishes nitty-gritty
Reduced to rubble,
Land no longer pretty

Boulders and granite
Fire and ash trash
An Unrecognizable planet
Walk on mounds of broken glass

Each day, a little less men strive
Those who managed to survive
Irreversible travesty’s against God
Chanted by men to Stay alive.

Souls Reduced to  Unspeakable things
To eat a human being is not as easy as it seems
Humanity in its primitive form Cannibalism
The bell tolls for thee” Dinner bell sings

What length would you go for your kids?
Looking in their hungry eyes first dibs
Carnal nature, tender young flesh
Hunger, starvation, soulless don’t confess

living off the flesh of
The belly of the beast
“Stab it with your stealing knife
But you just can’t **** the beast”

Mouth waters, a banquet feast
Life on the outside filled with decay
Losers never win they just fade away
False promised prayers nothing to say

One more gory battle fire the last mortar
War Ends with One World Order

Martial law rioters reject Curfew in affect  
Government laws suspect,
Man fights to the end to defend
Freedom life liberty protect



BLT Webster’s word of the day challenge
March 13, 2025 CURFEW
Curfew refers to a law or order that requires people to be indoors after a certain time at night, as well as to the period of time when such an order or law is in effect it can also be used to refer to a time set by a parent or caregiver at which a child has to be back home after going out


The Phrase
“Never send to know for whom
The bell tolls; it for Thee”
Originated from John Donnie’s meditation 17
and means we are all connected, and the death of any person, even a stranger, is a loss to all of humanity, as we are all part of the same human experience

Ernest Hemingway use the phrase as the title of his novel  “For whom the bell tolls”
The phrase can be used as a metaphor to emphasize the interconnectedness of
Humanity and the importance of caring about the events and people even those far away


Inspired song
Hotel California by the Eagles

Deserving all reviling, loathing, curse;
To be an art critic-- can it get worse?
Imagine appearing before the Lord,
In Christ's own kingdom, God's glory restored:
The One you ignored now judges your soul.
Your life is reviewed, opened like a scroll—
He looks through your motives, your soul, and heart.
Did you have faith?   Well... I wrote about Art.

Perhaps there exists something even worse...
Worse than atheist critics (and my verse):
Scribes who are devoted to Rock and Roll,
Rap, R & B, Pop in part or in whole.
Condemned by their works and their words alone:
The drivel they scribble for Rolling Stone
Must be answered for on the Judgement day
(Which none of them believed in anyway.)

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

                         Reliable InterGossip Service Providers

                            This one is dedicated to Spectrum

Don’t tell me that they are unreliable
All of my providers have been quite precise
Sure, the picture and sound are not often viable
But the bills are always on time – how nice!

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

                     Authority Over Everything on the Earth

                                    Sirach 17:1-15

You can’t be authority over all the earth
If in the end you are buried under it
What are man’s honors and dignity worth
After he is ignobly dropped into a pit?