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clcouch123

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clcouch123

In conversation, I prefer Christopher. My mom named me after Christopher Robin, after all. In writing, I use “C L Couch” (or, more simply, “c l couch”) because the form is genderless and also frankly easier to use. I have awful writer’s cramp. I am an educator more or less retired, more or less due to disability. At present, I live in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (USA). My writing here I mean to be occasional and also devotional. Either or both. The banner and profile photographs are by my friend and peer Debra Danielson. More of Debbie’s work to be enjoyed is at debradanielson.org. Thanks to each of you and both and all for coming to my blog.

Toll

(x = space)

x

x

Toll

x

I started to write

Because it was twelve thousand

Now it’s more than twenty

There would be little left

Of my small town

Which is considering

The numbers only

Imagine people

I don’t want to

Imagine myself there

Would be easier

Because I would be doing something

And it would be awful

And my life would break

Like the earth

Beneath the nations

That might come back

Or we will fill it

Not with the dead

But with material

For building and for living

Apologies from government are fine

Maybe we could stop the war

Among the factions

And the other wars

In the region

To reassemble

Reknit the people

Not as Babel

Fallen

But as the New Jerusalem

A promise

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Jazmin Quaynor on Unsplash

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0

Ordinaryism

(x = space)

x

x

Ordinaryism

x

Well,

It’s less expensive

To take a table outside

A favorite place

Or to discover

Than to take a cruise

Or fly within

Something wide-bodied

Keeping the moving air

Of the fan

The air out of the nozzle

Going

x

Not that those things

Aren’t fine

They are

And we should like them

Should we have them

But if you have a friend at

Table anywhere

Maybe two friends

Maybe more

x

You are at

The high table in the great hall

Of monarchs

A gilded place

The café

Of your liking

Like the stories

And like Earth’s

And humankind’s

Storied luxuries

x

We have what we have

And let ambition call

And love each day

Find something

Change the quotidian,

If need be

Reach out

Get help

Maybe at that table

(try not

to apologize)

x

Or let the table simply be

An inexpensive place

And a gathering

Without agenda

Part of the joy

The easy joy

In having what the human world

Would say is not a game-show prize

But that you know

And your company

Is priceless

Because there is no price

Except for coffee

Maybe rolls or cake

Or whatever pleasure

The menu

And today

Afford

x

C L Couch

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(I guess such a gathering might seem precious in the days of a pandemic, the reality and process, of learning how to wrap it in like SARS or H1N1 though of a worse disease—but I hope that one day easy meetings with our friends will happen once again; I’m sure the cafés hope so, too

yes, I know, we’re meeting now—I simply wish we’d work that out more safely)

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Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

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1

The Earth Is Not Round

(x = space)

x

x

The Earth Is Not  Round

x

Four thousand dead

In Turkey and in Syria

From earthquake

x

Do we understand

How many?

x

We could say

We could lost more in the Towers,

But do we understand

What that means

Save for being there?

x

And if there,

How far could we see?

How far would our eyes

And ears

And hands—our

Spirits allow?

x

The bodies piled here,

Now there:

Who understands?

And yet it happens,

All this happens—neither

Is done forever

Or for good

(that is a play on words)

x

We need to know we can

Step back—that

It is all right, the stepping back

x

As for disasters

We go in,

The brave go in,

Bags and boxes

Literal, awful

And sad treatments

That assuage

And do not heal

x

Still, many will be saved

And perhaps there is a plan

For the next time

To forestall the next time:

x

Real homes and towns,

Walls that bounce

And have a chance

To remain

And keep the mortal lives

Inside

x

I don’t have these perspectives,

Though I have come

To certain places

After:

Sometimes generations

Yet in need of fixing

x

Mostly, though,

The blood and gore

Have been my own

x

I do worse with yours

x

C L Couch

x

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Turkey and Syria earthquake: race to find survivors as death toll passes 6,000 and hundreds of thousands seek shelter – latest

The Guardian via MSN, 11 minutes ago (12:24 EDT)

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/turkey-and-syria-earthquake-race-to-find-survivors-as-hundreds-of-thousands-seek-shelter-and-death-toll-passes-5000-latest/ar-AA17bdhM

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(I wrote this morning after sleeping with the news last night)

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Photo by Parker Johnson on Unsplash

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1

Précis for Aurora

(x = space)

x

x

Précis for Aurora

x

It’s winter

And it’s likable

Because

It’s cold outside

But there isn’t snow

Or ice or slush

Or such upon

The ground;

My car is clear

Should I need it,

And the sun is rising

Making the branches

Look like

Black arms with points

Reaching out,

Beseeching something

And I’m sorry

But I don’t know what

x

What does nature need

But to exist

And have oxygen and room

For existence

And some growth?

We could help

Or get in the way;

We conquer nature

So we think

To have our grand

Plans realized

For things above,

Below

The water table

Or some other

Primordial impediment

x

Do we cooperate

I wonder,

Ever:

Do we like our trees

And clouds

And ground and stones

And deeper things

Or

Are they only things

In the way?

x

We have a dominion

Theory,

Saying that

We are in charge

Of all of it

The flora and the fauna

And everything

That doesn’t move

Until cracks in the ground

Or volcanos

Dictate; I’m not sure

How our commission goes

Should we be

Evaluated—what kind

Of grade would

Watching angels

Grant us?

x

I say all this

Because it’s early

And the trees along

The street

Must manage with

Vehicular traffic;

The cars and trucks

Are noisy

While the trees

Are quiet (no wind

to show a

protest, either)

x

I wish you well today

And us

Us together,

Since the CO-2 and

O-2 arrangement

Keeps us going

And we are ruining

The Amazon

And I don’t know

How we’re doing

On Main Street

x

C L Couch

x

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Photo by Renting C on Unsplash

x

(I actually do live on Main Street; maybe you do, too)

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2

Honestly

(x = space)

x

x

Honestly

x

O God

You are so good

I say this when the sun is out

Will I say it

In the storm

When I am losing everything I’ve had

Maybe a person

x

While my people are shattered

Or even when the sun

Comes out

After

x

I won’t believe the sun

May I believe you

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash

x

1

A Kindness

(x = space)

x

x

A Kindness

(Rosa Parks)

x

Because she was tired

And had enough

Of being tired

And the bus was not a charter

It was public transportation

She paid her money

Not a special fee

There was a seat

And she was tired

And had had enough

Of being tired

x

The kind of pain

Inside and out

And all she wants to do

It have it

Live it

Normally

The way

Anyone might bear

The pain

Of living

x

Though especially

The colored people

Colored brown

And paying for it

Without payment

In a place they did not sail to

Like Europeans

Who told the stories

Of their difficulties

Forgetting

(looking away)

About the holds beneath

In which the colored people

Had been pushed

And chained

And many of them

Died

On a journey of abduction

x

Can you imagine

Starting out this way?

This is their legacy

So let her have the vinyl seat

That she had rented

For a while

x

Let her have the whole bus

A fleet of buses

Let the people ride for free

And charge admission

For the lighter folk,

Which might began

To pay her back

And all her people

Who had the worse luck

Like the Indians

Already living here

x

Everyone with un-pale skin

Who met the Europeans

x

Not me

I wasn’t there

The rejoinder

Fair enough

But you’re here now

We’re here

We’re all here

Now

With small choices

And enormous ones

For how to live a country

Filled with all the colors

Hearts

And minds

And souls

x

You know,

Sometimes we stand

To let the lady sit

Or someone older

Someone bearing burdens

Or simply to be kind

Call it

Chivalry aside,

We can live this way

Kindly and civilly

Again

And for the first time

x

Might bring peace

(yes, there will be disgruntled)

On the bus

At the doorways

Going in

And going out

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Peter Orsel on Unsplash

Intersection in the Middle of the Desert

x

4

Invitation to a Wake

(x = space)

x

x

Invitation to a Wake

(with a toast)

x

We invite ourselves to

A meeting of ourselves

To celebrate a life

No longer with us

With all the possibilities

Frustrated to resolve

This side of things

And we can’t drink ourselves

Into oblivion

Because oblivion has form

And so frustrates annihilation

Of our senses

Besides, we want

To remember

And with gratitude

Share memories,

Enumerate mortality

Until the count and everything

That counts

Is ready on both sides

x

To one or those no longer

But an absence,

Here are drinks

(one of these

per one of us)

To aid sensation that

We hope will aid selection

Of desired sun-and-shade

Remembrances

Of memory

To tell

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash

x

2

Live from Punxsutawney

(x = space)

x

x

Live from Punxsutawney

x

Knob

Hollow

Gobbler

Turkey

Groundhog

Burrow

A manufactured life

Goes on tour

Speaking engagements

What is its thesis?

Moved in a cylinder

Men in hats

With groundhog faces

Thousands and thousands

I guess they have

Places to stay

TV, computer cameras

How it can it not

See its shadow?

Phil is not that accurate

Need we wonder

Why

Enjoy the day

Laughter

Celebration

Into spring

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Ralph Katieb on Unsplash

Groundhog didn’t like the late April snow (she was in the middle of nest building when it hit).

x

6

Till We Have Faces

(x = space)

x

x

Till We Have Faces

x

Black History Month begins

Black experience

Recorded

Call it Black experience month

Black testimony

Black story

x

Till

Evers

Amistad

Empires in Africa

Black and white

Greedy

Murderous

Raid

Take

Transport

Sell

And so begins a nation

You may say that others did it, too

So what

So fucking what

x

We have a month to cringe

A month to listen

Get it right

Fix something small

Fix something huge

Enormous

Like a nation

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

HDR shot of a sunset over downtown Memphis with the pyramid and bridge.

Memphis, TN, USA

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