Photo by Florencia Potter on Unsplash

I searched for “life,” and this is one of the images I got.  A contemporary still life, perhaps?  Here’s what the artist has to say: “I tried to shoot some ‘set design’ photos just for fun with a friend and this is the result.”  Added is “Hope you like it!”  I rather do.  Maybe the meaning, if a meaning is required, is that before death when in life we have lemons, we should make, you know, some lemonade.  If so, best depiction of a saying I’ve ever beheld.  Good day and good life, all!



Por la Vida

I’m tired
And my arm hurts
My neck hurts
Too

I’m stressed
Over several
Maybe many things
Some
More or less
Uniquely mine
Some
Cosmic
Though most of these
Mostly
In-between

And this is how I feel
More than
Emotions
But spread throughout
My body
As I suppose generally
Stress goes
And even body-pains
Are signaled to the rest
To rally

There’s
Depression
And there’s anxiety
They been identified
Anyway
In the way such challenges
Are analyzed
And explained
And often
And with me
Medicated

And that’s all right
Except
I feel the way I feel

Companionship
Might help
Though not always
While
Of course
There’s God
And I shouldn’t minimize
The almighty
Although I do
Don’t I
And all the time

Except
I also wonder
Why there’s evidence in
Nature
And in reason
But otherwise
The act and presence
Of divinity
Well
Denies both in sometimes
Storylike invisibility

But then
I’m on about companionship
Good company
Healthy
Relationship
That is
And shall I have that
Please
Maybe with Irish in a pub
(beyond the stereotype
I am half-Irish
by the way)
Maybe with Germans
(while I
type)
In a haus of hof

For what did Luther say
Of beer
But that it proves the love
And happiness
By God
Though I imagine
More than anodyne
Is needed for full
Living

And life is what I mean
And mean
For you
And quandaries
(I don’t think I’ve used that word
before)
Questions about remedies
Or simply how to answer
All the requirements
In a day


C L Couch



(with apologies to Irish and to Germans, though I think we/they can take it if not live it)