2 preachy poems (and I could apologize)


Wise Fragility

Don’t lose what’s authentic

That sounds good

But what if one were not authentic
To begin with

And what if one grew up inside
And was only subject
The falsity
So prevalent in
The human world

A wish
A want
The wisdom
And the health
In being who we are
With all
The honest virtues
And flaws

Flaws can be honest
Too
And loved

So what is real

We think when we’re naked
We are
Real

But isn’t when
We look the way we choose to look
For modesty
Or show
That reveals ourselves
In some depth
Some way

And bring it out again
What we know from what we’ve had
How we’ve been
Treated
Too

How about consideration of
How we might
Treat ourselves
With both health and pleasure

God
Making
And approving
Both

The way we treat each other
Vying
Too
In the best way
We were
Made
To deal
And to approve

Be you
Be me
And in love
All kinds of
(wise
healthy)
Love
Trade parts of each other

As lovers
Friends
(and)
Or nations


(the notion of naked versus dressed and when we are (more) real comes from a passage in The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis)


Cabinetry

I keep a few doors open
I don’t know
So I can appreciate
The colors in the labels
Of canned food
Or
Because I want
To be reminded of what’s there
Or
Because I’m claustrophobia
And the open doors
Trick a sense of space

Or maybe
I’d rather have life open
Not that it is
Though I think it should be

More than that
I think all our lives
Should be
Open
Like these doors

Not as politicians
Say
Nothing hide
Because they’re lying
In that
They have many things to hide
And so do we
Collectively
At least

But could we do it
Open up our lives without
Rejection
Without even prejudice
Except toward being human
Which
Of course
Is all
Of us

Open up
Maybe
(collectively)
Take off the doors
Somehow

Leave them that way
Which shouldn’t be a problem
Save for tremors


C L Couch


Photo by Tina Witherspoon on Unsplash