keep looking up
though for safety-sake look down and out as well
it’s a cold cloudy day
whose clarity
is in
for me
my fondness of such days
the sun came out
so we had
that
and will return and I would miss
it
after a while
after
how many days
don’t want things clammy
and
humidity is risky
for inhalers
though
when there’s wind
we
get some help in breathing in
if only of adventure in
the sky
call Pegasus
or build a steampunk thing
for us
and our group
or let strangers be uncalled yet
flung together and
we journey to
wherever
and everything unfolds because no expectations
are
allowed
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(the title’s not so original, but I used to hear it as the last words called out by Jack Horkheimer who hosted what for me was a late-evening show on PBS)
photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash
beelzebul
lord of the flies
I wonder if
that
extends to bees
insects
in general
and
we don’t do well with these
their foreignness
I guess
arthropodic armor
buzzing when
it’s not easy in the garden
and
then they bite and
they sting
and
when masses of these assemble
there is trouble
on soft flesh
and I wonder we don’t think
they’re always
angry
I’m drafting while debating
hoping for the bite
to go
away
sad shared surprise we both got up to
early in the morning
and by the way
to me and
you
we need these or we die
c l couch
photo by Ankith Choudhary on Unsplash
"Collecting Honey"
a few poems you know for Monday
scribbling
I guess
a scribble has a word
or
some words to distinguish from
a doodle
though doodle
I imagine could have
words
as well
say
the names of crushes by a child
an adolescent
since
we don’t have crushes
when we’re older
do
we
and we do
which might cause the child
the adolescent
to
cringe
that folk with wrinkles could let love
inside the creases
the war asleep
I slept poorly
which
is the syle anymore
and
I dn’t know what’s happened
in the mean time
as in
the wars
the ones we know
the ones we guess at
with
the ones we miss entirely
for all the destruction
caused
nonetheless
the war between people
maybe
men and women
as
Thurber has penned
or
inside oneself to start the war
or stop
then
these might be
all
the Monday wars
so that
I’ll
learn the real news
later on
a friendly wish is most of all
during or after
and so
it’s Monday
with all the lack of expectation
come
with Monday
and
I hope more than this
much more
that this has been and is
a really
good
day for you
since
you need it
after all
for all you’re going through
that
takes its toll of energy and might go so far
to dull the brightness of
the spirit
or things are not that bad
but
you tire anyway
and need
recharging
which
is pretty normal
or you’re well already
and
a wish is
simply added to the larger quantity
of excellence
so
don’t let me talk you into anything
but have the doo
day
soon or now
or keep it going
c l couch
photo by Dmytro Koplyk on Unsplash
A pileated woodpecker pauses mid-motion, head tilted as if listening for movement beneath the bark.
who tells the story, then?—perhaps a single nature or the other
a journey through haiku
[with annotations that are not unwinsome-less]
temperature speaks
you’ve had your cool days a while
time for something else
[told hot days are coming, are here]
something else there was
object before subject parsed
important thing gone
[thought of it last night]
and there was a launch
another to the station
they breathe and eat now
[ISS supply mission flight]
think we’ll find green cheese
and evidence of settlers
who no doubt were Swiss
[sorry to the French as well as the Stilton-bearers; take it up with Diana stories, I suppose; but it is the Swiss who make the cheese, not green, nonetheless with craters]
a glass of white wine
sometime after 5 or so
my flat heart would skip
[if you like red then write red or say it when you read it; part of you will do that, anyway]
I love you and more
scenes after each other then
hope for a real act
[discussion in a scene in a movie]
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photo by Huỳnh Chương on Unsplash
wet day unterrible outside
the dropping points of willow green
drip into gray
rendering the name of tree
worthwhile
a good name if metaphor
if anthropomorphizing
making
people out of trees
not by Ovid’s recollection
working
rather by our skill at changing
the tree into person
not the sap
but
tears that weep
the willow is Old Man
the trees throw apples
‘cause
they’re cross with the travelers to
Oz
and so in our wonderlands
we make more
of what we sense
from
ordinary
so that there’s more insightful
and triumphant
to wonder in
the land
if
crying
angry natures
to encounter
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(us from fatherland, more often motherland)
photo by S L on Unsplash
in the news today
I know there’s what’s happening
in the world
to make
it real
enough honestly to take part
gather in
share stories
help
and ask for help
for all those who are not us and yet
we share the world
like fog when manifest
presume it’s
always
manifest
moves through and by its need
relates us all by exigence
an element and need
of circumstance
whatever we enact within
one
form of consequence
the other
love or hate
war or peace
to share
and by that
all of us
by what is bad
or we might surprise good
either way
act
or result by what happens
what we happen
bind
and by are bound by
fate sometimes it’s
said
better by the love of world even
at war
at home or in trenches
actually to share
it all
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could be the final poem of the evening (in a reading)
photo by Bank Phrom on Unsplash
“Print Is Alive” (given caption)
the day before
the year before
yesterday was Mothers Day
and while
I don’t mention all occasions
how could I
I could have mentioned this one
if
for me it an odd day
a memorial day
in fact
my mother died in the 1980s when she was
too young
though who is young or old enough to die
of cancer
but she did
lived two years more than the doctors gave her
so
that was
something and
it was
a set of holidays and no reason to have
visitors
to go out
sometimes
too
to talk with family and church folk
to
make some arrangements
though the budget was uncertain
so this is not about me
accept it
is
the family
and this is how I go through the day
each year
reminiscence
if
dwelling on how hard
the last years were
c l couch
photo by Sahaj Patel on Unsplash
well
well
I’m back
not from leaving Frodo off
to sail to a healing land
but
from hospital
where I got some new parts replacing
olf and tired
and need rest themselves
like me
from time to time
no Mordor
but
the operating room
where they were helpful
introducing
themselves and telling me what
they
were doing
then I feel asleep
dreamed
dreams
then woke up no longer there
in dreams or in
the O.R.
either
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photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
due at the hospital by eleven
well
today
a drug
a cut
some work on the heart
I guess it’s okay
except for risk
and then
I’m claustrophobic
maybe the drug will keep me
under
and relax me somehow on either
side of things
right now
I worry over the phobia
more
than the other parts of this
in a few
hours
either way the immediate things should
be done with recovery
to face
which I guess will be a big bandage
on my chest
and
wincing while I get
my freedom back
I’m drafting in the time I have
hmm
I hadn’t thought of typing after
everything
I’ll
let you know
or won’t be able to
c l couch
photo by Hush Naidoo Jade Photography on Unsplash
“dedication of our Hospital personnel”
South Africa
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