(x = space)

x

x

3 poems, when you have time (one poem about observation, one about reading, one about war taking all)

x

x

Observe and Report

x

For preamble

Nothing like

The burdens of a people

Upon Joshua

Or Caleb

x

What’s petty

What is meaningful

Too often

I don’t know

I pick up a stone

It’s not a park

There are no regulations

I take the thing with me

Becomes an artifact

At home

x

I am reminded

Of the Earth

We are set on

So many layers

To the center

Countless to go out

Again

To try to count

x

Clueless

It and I

While it’s supposed to be

And I think I should know something

About the atoms

The formation

Its place

Near my fingers

When I found it

When I take it up

Look upon it

Now

x

x

Read Me

x

Not unlike the words

Commanding

Alice

To forward

Her adventure

x

Words

Well

Words have

Such value

So the lines are short

While

Reading slowly is advised

Going slowly

Generally

x

Yours should be read

This way

As well

x

Time is a treasure

Though we should parse it out

Surrender it in particles

x

Not worrying so much

About the measure

Since the bill

Of sale

Is not our own

But investment the creator made

Inside creation

x

So let’s take our time

As said

Although again

It’s not our own

But lent

At best

And for our use

Simply

As use

x

Please take time to read me

I’ll take time

Reading

You

And then there’s

The needful time

For vital

As in lively

Response

x

x

War and After, After

x

The wars go on

Again

I can’t imagine

The explosions

The dust

The rubble

And the blood

Beneath

x

And the things of blood

Of bodies

That once held the lives

Of souls

While here on Earth

x

Now stolen

As if by gods

Self-styled

With machines

Black and pretty

Smithed

In hell

x

And this is metaphor

Impressions

The real thing

For those alive

Is all about

The running

Avoidance of more anything

Like that

Again

x

And then it happens

There is more

It’s worse

Nothing inside ourselves

Ever

Really

Gets used to it

x

And then

Maybe there’s a moment when

The silence rings

Notes of nothing

Anymore

While looking

Touching

For flesh containing life

We might embrace

To take

And to offer

What we have

x

And there might be people

Come from

Too short a way

To find us

For ourselves

To treat us

Representing

Something clean

And institutional

Away

x

We might be taken there

Where

Objectless walls

Close in

With noises in the distance

Or have we brought them with us

And is it noise

That closes in

The distance

x

We need medication

Sedative

To leave all this

Except for bodies

That have names

xxxxxWe cherish both

xxxxxWe want them

xxxxxHave to search for them

xxxxxTo know them

xxxxxAnd to have them

xxxxxOnce again

x

Though we might have to settle

In without response

While life is measured

Sometimes

Without

The power to the building

And their efforts

And the dust

And rubble

That came in with us

x

The war

The damning war

The reason we say bloody

For the worst

Things we can think of

x

Fleshly containers

Holding flesh

Until they must

Let go

x

Who are they

What are their names

Who are we

Where are we going

x

War take all

Peace for the remnant

The ghostly revenant

Left over

The dust

Of everything that’s taken

For what’s left over

To remain

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Ansia Lasa on Unsplash

x