(x = space)

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Monday’s Children

(coffee then reading, watching, hearing the news)

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It’s a Monday,

Blue and green

It’s Stephen King’s birthday

And tomorrow is the birthday of

Bilbo Baggins

And Frodo Baggins

The anniversary of

The big party underneath the big tree

Thank goodness for

Big trees

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Zendaya won the Emmy for lead actress

(though she is an actor)

On TV this past year

Since it’s a kind of peer review

And a mutual admiration

Society of a

Society I am neither in nor out,

I stay up with these things

Tangentially,

Though I’m glad for her

And her

Accomplishment

She must be well-supported

And did I squeeze a bitter grape just now?

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To all those who accomplish much,

I’m thankful

For those who have helped them,

More so

And for those who accrued

Through

No effort but the virtue of their own,

I am impressed as well as

Pleased, though it’s not about me

And it needn’t be

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Now, I read today that  women make up

Fifty-one percent of my society,

While thirty-one percent are white men

Is this why we’re so

Frightened?

Fear leading to anger

Leading to sin

We burn the crosses, rig elections

Cheat the press to make the case

That we should be in charge

The new majority, by the way,

If we must count

In this fashion

We’ve known for a while will be

Hispanic or Latino,

Going as Latin-x these days

In spite of brimstone efforts

At the border, in the cities

This will happen

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I’m looking forward to the changes

And when the cap is taken off

Am I a traitor to my kind?

No, my kind

Is homo sapiens—

I can say for myself

That pinkish-pale or whatever

My skin is is interesting enough

But the color wheel is vast

And extraordinary (for being

ordinary)

And it is there

Or here—even the color blind

Know the textures change

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We are in this variegated world

In the flora

We are the fauna

We don’t need secret knowledge

Except as an exercise,

And bent has always been

The hiding of agenda

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Join me in the world

All the colors of the senses

(in this way,

synesthetes rule)

Patricians, even partisans

Let go

With everyone, take hold

Of what is good

What is love

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C L Couch

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Photo by Roman Bozhko on Unsplash

The Wheelhouse, Los Angeles, United States

Handlebar Tape at Wheelhouse Coffee

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