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Month

July 2023

Passport

(x = space)

x

x

Passport

x

Then

There was the story of

The woman at the grocery’s

Who

Encountered

Someone new

Requesting an I-D

To

Accompany the check

x

And she brought out

Her passport

Maybe still

Shiny

With unuse

Except it jostled

‘Round

With all the other things

x

The purse inside

The purse

You know

Each with jostled things

x

Bypassing the license

For that

Passport

x

To indicate

To someone new

She might have been somewhere or will

Be going

Somewhere someday soon

x

C L Couch

x

x

This story did not happen and is based (fictively) on something the mother said in the movie Breaking Away, directed by Peter Yates and written by Steve Tesich.  Set in Bloomington, it is a good movie for (about) the summer. The mother is portrayed by Barbara Barrie.

x

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

x

1

July 3

(x = space)

x

x

July 3

x

They were wrangling

I suppose

Having voted

Working out a document

To announce

The war

Officially

And an identity

A nation standing with

Nations

Newly established

Here for good

If possible

x

Slavery was

Set aside

And without a thought

Toward women

Either

I imagine

First families

Or the indigenous

In nature

x

Yet saying something

Human

Political

Flawed

Trying

To say something brave

Over the fallen

In Massachusetts

And the blockading

Or port cities

x

The war was on

This would say

We’re all in it now

Choose

Your sides

This is a side

To read out in assemblies

Inside

Outside

We are here

A nation

Enlightenment

Inserting God after the fact

Now committed

To the fields

Everywhere

Valleys

Peaks

Plains

Cities

Farms

Homes

Of battle

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Anca Muresan on Unsplash

x

0

To the Rainmaker

(x = space)

x

x

To the Rainmaker

x

Cloudy day

Rain has started

Drought conditions

Keep raining

Please

x

Grateful ground

With people on it

Also thanking you

xxxxxAs if a liturgy

For crying on us

If that’s what this is

x

If you are sad with us

And why not

We are inhospitable

Toward Earth

While it’s our home

In all the ages

And should we take measures

To prevent

To recoil

(as in rolling up again)

To keep everything alive

x

Will we remember

To apologize

While planting?

To express our thanks

We still have days

For growth

For food

And to get it right

x

To the sky

The stars

Whatever gods

Or greater compounds

Might set over us

Or under us

To serve

With greater might

Than we shall ever know

x

Curb our hubris

Stop us before

The final act

Shall ruin everything

xxxxxAnd someone

xxxxxSomething

xxxxxCome from outside

xxxxxTo claim

xxxxxWhat’s left

x

While it’s still ours

If ours

Help us

Gods

The sky

xxxxxWhomever

Get it right

With what’s left

To have an Earth

Before

We dare to seek another

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

x

0

We Land

(x = space)

x

x

We Land

x

It is the first

There is a special on TV

Three weeks from now

We land

We land

x

Let’s see

I was twelve

So much I didn’t know

But I was watching

Listening

Technical language

About pitch

And descent

Then dust kicked up

Then landed

I don’t remember Cronkite’s

Reaction

I’ve seen it since

Maybe my parents preferred

Another network

But they were down

Tranquility Base

There had been no base

They were the base

They were on

The moon

Armstrong and Aldrin

While Collins flew above

Waiting for retrieval

And then for the ship

To take them back home

x

That’s where we were

x

Armstrong got out

Kept talking

So we knew

He was alive

He descended

Left the ladder

Touched upon

The world

Near our world

x

One small step for (a) man

One giant leap for mankind

x

When they left

There was a plaque

About accomplishment

And peace

Signed by Nixon

A phantom pledge fulfilled

Since no one

Specifically had asked

Though Kennedy

Had said

x

The space race gave us

Microwaves

Ballpoint pens

And Tang

So there was usefulness

And whatever to be said

In winning

At least

Our saying

That we won

x

I thought we’d keep going back

I thought there’s be a base

With walls and windows

A round roof

And lots

And lots

Of oxygen inside

I guess that is about to happen

Now

And we’ll find out

If we disturb

The empire inside

That H. G. Wells

Fictively

Foretold

x

Or Clarke’s sentinel

Or maybe there shall be

A little

Prince

x

1969

We also went

To Woodstock

We protested war

All the contention of

My older brothers’ generation

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Guzmán Barquín on Unsplash

x

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