bad Friday
1
it’s pain
pain everywhere
though it’s localized
but
feels everywhere to overwhelm
normalcy with a wish that
it would all
go away
and how much all
new limbs
new organs
new
life
or to end this life
which is extreme
of course
except as another wish
this one doctrinal
promise
of paradise
in time
Job persisted over
all
the losses
the agonies far away
and closer in
even
to the body
but
the spirit persisted
and that matters more
over matter
as
the seat of will
from which to rise
for
faith
curse God
and
die
how awful a direction
and I’m thinking how
pathetic
a moment funny
grim
for
what was left
what had been there
from the start
affirming
prosperity
and now affirming poverty
as if
to wonder
as Job wonders in a scouring of soul
yet
stays where he has been
if
for no good reason by the mind
or body
but the thread to embrace
slender when tried
yet
invulnerable somehow
and to hold
maybe in thinking
that another thread
that of hope
shall
be restored
to help both hands
not out of reward
for
anything that had been good is gone
but for remaining
Job
believing God
even when the last thread is tried
and was the offer to
let go
and is it an
allegory
a lesson in curriculum
how
to hold on
no matter what
when all the reasons in the world have
failed
along with one’s own predetermined sense
of things
as
a new kind of faith if called for
if tacitly
since we don’t know that God or anyone celestial
spoke with Job
for
explanation or
for comfort
a faith that lives regardless
that
is chosen
and keeps one going through everything adverse
not
to judge but have extraordinary love
persisting
oh
persisting
in camps
in whatever prison might be made of life
in war
and whatever’s left after
the missiles
launched by sin
have done their work
2
pain
too much
a prayer for healing
or
the prayer for telling
as
the rational fails
while the telling drama must go on
and
we might question motives and
with reason of our own
but
have to hang on
anyway
so it goes in our own book
of loss
and faith
not in loss but in what might come next
to aid
and at last
to resolve
now
a new day of broken land
fabric torn as if to judge
or mourn
and
yet a curtain that is
torn
to challenge what had been
worldly
religiously decided
as one died who
had
taught life
for learning God is close and God’s
realm
now
Earth splits and by a guessed-at storm cries
while darkness forms or
furnishes
the question
and
faith might be done
for most
with that one
nailed
planted on a heap
announcing death the moment
before
signs
not determined yet
beyond tragedy
and irony
for
who rules now
and where is hope on Earth
maybe in space where the intrepid
might conceive
whereas the instinct here
to cover
and to hide
and
yet in love
to bury first
and moan
and keen
with Earth’s
screams of fracture
for
a while
now
c l couch
Job 2:9
photo by Maksym Tymchyk 🇺🇦 on Unsplash
Kyiv, Ukraine
the one
funny how we take the names
without
the origins
Christmas
Easter
today for Maundy Thursday
and then there are days whose words we know
outside
and could wonder why they’re used in here
thinking of what’s good
in
Good Friday
Maundy is the shortening of the word
that means command
not given
as
suggestion or option
though our wills must be involved
to have our ornery way
if nothing else
will and ego
some
days to think we could do without these
submit to good before the start
and use the spirit of our drive
only
in accordance
with the virtues of creation
no
falling needing or
have happened
Perelandra
while the directives were not hard
or even
new
but given by God’s child
all grown up
to people
all grown up
that you
that I
that we love each other
and
by the way
we’ve given a new rank with God
to be called friends
now
and know our faith in God this way
as a relationship with feeling
as in mind
and spirit
the mandatum
the command
mandate
to
love
and to remember we are friends
before events that follow
that are awful
not
the prayer but bleeding perspiration
intimate and earnest
lack of interest to take up the hard parts
of the world
to bear
and for which to sacrifice
one
of these
anyway
the one of us to save
the rest
beyond the human part
to God
and model perfectly what we might do in life
to
take on imperfection
as well as pardon
to try
to love that way
one savior
whom
and with so much
simple and profound
to follow
love one another
you are
my friends
c l couch
photo by Piotr Łaskawski on Unsplash
Holy Wednesday homework
sigh
Wednesday of Holy Week
a nothing day
third of
unfamous days
before
the rituals old and new
determined by a world or one’s
parish
or the way one has developed
over time
of expectation or endurance
of obligation
sigh
good
meaningful days if added
to the rest that must
go
on or goes on
anyway
add in hopes for chocolate
hardboiled eggs
and
ham
green artificial grass
that’s all
suburban passing but
might prayers go more intentional
for
the wars on
diseases
thieving of all kinds
among
these
theft of spirit of one kind
then
the other
pray for me
but while I’m praying
pray
for you
for needs I know
or
have kept away
by gesture
and
by habit
pray creatively
why don’t we
awkwardly
for lack of use applying our own words
but
it is Easter week and God’s hearing
might be understanding
flexible
and
you know
God gets it
anyway
c l couch
photo by Mathurin NAPOLY / matnapo on Unsplash
clcouch123 
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