We’re Having a Day

(as they say in midwestern parts of the USA)

 

I’m having a good moment

Because exhaustion has caught up

With me,

And I slept through the dewy

Then the sunlit parts of morning

 

It’s hazy outside

Later on, there might be rain

I washed some dishes, dried a few,

Left the rest in the rack

(to dry, not to be tortured)

Made some tea, warmed up

A couple rolls,

Broke free a banana

Now I’m here

Breakfast and writing, though it’s

Shortly after one o’clock

I’m here

Where are you?

How has your day been so far?

Good day, I hope

We each need one

 

I think of all the spots on fire

Burning into hatred

And simple, dangerous

Needless larceny

(but for those who lose

and shouldn’t have to)

There are the other fires, woodland

And volcanoes

 

There are small hatreds, too

No one in my building

Likes each other,

And I don’t know how

To reconcile the importance of

My problems

Against those in bigger cities,

Wilder places

 

But we’re all here

I think there must be a reason

It used to be that people

Would drop by

In southern places

I don’t know if that still

Goes on,

Though there can be charm

And even balm

In this

 

All the hatred that’s incited—in

Part, I blame the leadership

Large part

Yes, the thing that’s in the

White House

And its cronies

Another league of hatred turned to

Disgust for power, inhabiting

The Congress

You know, a vampire smile

Doesn’t hide the fact

That you’re a vampire

 

And those lurking behind,

Around

Who rake in ever-sordid

Kinds of profit

You know who you are

Though the last thing you desire

Is the light of day as well

 

What do my small problems

Have to do with these?

I think it’s that

Most of us simply want to live

Have our babies

Keep a home

Go to church or

Temple when we should

Look at those we do not know

And wonder who they are

Only in idle ways

Until by surprise or small design

We meet them

Not so bad, we’ll baldly say

To ourselves and our companions,

While the neighborhood grows

In kinship

A little, as is said, at a time

 

It’s what we want

A life

We’ll work for it

But all the subterfuge from

All the kinds of hell

We can do without

Take it from us, please

Maybe we can vote it

Out of office

Though I think something more

Is called for

To quiet my third-floor neighbor

To extinguish flames of anarchy

(ridiculous, they say, and sublime)

To find another way than

By looking at and by praising anger as

A tone and an intent

For the nation

 

We need the superheroes

Justice League

Justice Society

Avengers, reassemble

But then we can’t have these

Though we can have the comics

And the movies

And the CW

We can have heroics on the upside

And the inside

But I’m afraid we’ll have to be

Our Thors

Our Wonder Women

Even the Watchmen (Watch People)

On the outside

A new assembly

Maybe based on old heroics

With some rules, some standards

That we find in ancient literature,

Stories retold

Many of us hear them once a week

(though if your leaders are yelling

there, go somewhere else)

 

I’m done for now

While some of you

Dear ones

Saving ones

Are only starting

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Donovan Valdivia on Unsplash