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Vacant

(x = space)

x

x

Vacant

(Holy Saturday)

x

A day for scurrying

Like mice in light

Look for food,

Hide, rest

Listening for the next

Sounds that are not yours

That might be coming for you

Or might give you away

Now add on human sadness

The living of a tragedy

Like Oedipus,

Antigone

No happy ending possible

The hero is gone

The extraordinary years are gone

There is nothing now

But flight from arrest,

Weeping as at Babylon

x

Practicing tradition

In the dark

Since the source was killed

In horror

Sleeps without sleeping

Leaving everyone

To scurry to avoid arrest

To somehow persist

With broken hearts

Hope so far off

To be recalled

Stories torn

Healing forgotten

x

We count this day

An in-between

They knew it only

As an empty,

Weeping nothing

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash

x

Nothing Good

(o = space)

o

o

Nothing Good

(Good Friday)

o

X

Saint Andrew’s cross

Peter’s cross is upside-down

Francis

Who was not crucified

Favored the T, it seems;

He received stigmata

o

The shape of history

The record of our story

Told in a symbol

Without words

One who knows no words

Inked or engraved

Still knows the story

Holding close

The symbol

Of enmity

Prevailed,

A death upon the cross,

Then hidden in the ground

o

There, that’s done:

Both broken discipleship

And keeping pristine empire

Are served

o

Such a cruelty of days

This day

To call it good

Nothing good about it

Really

We were at our worst

Nothing good about it

o

C L Couch

o

o

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

o

Passion Thursday

(x = space)

x

x

Passion Thursday

(Maundy Thursday)

x

1

I am poor

I would love to be invited

To supper with Jesus

Because I’m hungry

And sometimes I am afraid

For food

I’m sorry

I want to hear the story

But all I can hear

Is on the inside, now

Maybe afterward

Or during

It’s rotten evangelism,

I guess,

On my part

Wanting the real food, first

Yes, there is a question

Of what’s real,

I’m certain

But feed with food, please,

First

Then I shall listen

To anything

Especially the truth

Sorry for the truth in

A yowling stomach,

In an actual meal

x

2

Who knows where they were

Or how many

What they ate,

If it was a meal of tradition

Or what was at hand

The way a meal is sometimes,

Checking our cupboards

And the refrigerator

Looking at the oven

Being hopeful

(hopeful people

hopeful oven)

x

Was Mary there?

Were any of the Marys there?

Not to serve but to take part

In equal parts

With the rest?

x

And why did Jesus call it new?

A new commandment

That was ancient,

Love one another

Exodus and Deuteronomy

Along with whose house

Shall we serve

And how

x

What might be new

To me

Was to call them friends

Upgrade from disciples

Friends

A loving term

x

Maybe the love of God

Between people and God

Was renewed

There was a person saying

You can know this God this way

You don’t have to wait

For the appointed time

The proper time

Is now

Kairos

Along with chronos

Love God anytime

As if at table with you

All of you

Any of you

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Hennie Stander on Unsplash

x

Escape Room

(x = space)

x

x

Escape Room

x

Once again

For Passover,

Too many now

Are refugees

Fleeing Pharaohnic tyranny

Fear from explosions

Falling walls

Broken bodies

Family annihilation

Other countries take them

Sacred and secular

The people

The new homes

More than Jews in Ukraine

More people leaving

Refugees from Syria

Those who are “repatriated”

(strategic term)

From island nations

To the south

Those who want to leave for life

From Mexico,

Parts of Central America

And when there’s disaster,

We flee from parts

Of our land as well

x

Passover

For so many, many now

Might the angel of death

Give leave

For space and means

For victims

For escape

Blood on the lintels

Before leaving

Death for the victimizers

As angels

As an agency of God

See fit

x

Passover

For Jews in Ukraine

Jews in Israel

And everywhere

Good people have to run

For life

x

C L Couch

x

x

For Jews fleeing Ukraine, Passover takes on new meaning

“Good morning! Happy morning!” Rabbi Avraham Wolff exclaimed, with a big smile, as he walked into the Chabad synagogue in Odesa on a recent morning. Russian missiles had just struck an oil refinery in . . .

x

Photo by Vitamina Poleznova on Unsplash

x

An Officer Is Mourned

(x = space)

x

x

An Officer Is Mourned

(William Lebo)

x

It’s on TV

Today is a memorial

For a local cop

Who died when shot

Back of the house

Whose killer was then

Killed

The loop was made

The circle’s closed

There is black

There are flowers

There are photographs

There is the coffin

Good things are said

By the pastor

It is a few days before

Palm Sunday

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

x

Let Me Tell You about My Day

(x = space)

x

x

Let Me Tell You about My Day

(first hour or so)

x

Pre-dawn

x

Blue

And if you look into it,

A promise of silver

x

In a while,

The mourning doves might call

Take over for the cardinals

And the robins

Who might be louder elsewhere

x

The doves

Sing us into green

x

Town noise might subsume

The outside sounds

(except the doves who

are right against the window)

Except that it is Sunday

So the morning

Should be

Relatively quiet

For nature’s sentineling

And mine

We’ll find out

x

As for other senses,

Touch and smell and taste

Should have their turns

You might

Guess at the prospects

x

There’s still a war

Two wars, three wats

Still a virus

Many viruses

People will die today

And people will be born into

Air-breathing life

x

I’m a little late

Proposing all of this

Because the coffee cup

Slipped from my hand

And all the coffee

Slid

Down the down the

Sides of everything,

Flat surfaces

And cushioned

(a play of surface tension

and of gravity),

To land upon the floor,

Most of it

Slight sweet

More creamy than sweet

An expensive brand

Though not a kind

More dear

x

So I took time to

Clean the mess:

To clear out things,

Take things

To the sink

Where I’ll deal with them,

Sponge and paper towels

And cleaner for

The rest, for the floor

Now things have to dry

Then to be

Cleaned again

And there’s more coffee

To take out from

Its machine

x

Sigh,

One of those days

And what does that mean?

x

I see

The blue

And sense a silver promise

Like new friends

In a scouters’ song

x

I reckon now

You’ll have a day to survey

Finally

Of many hours

I’ll look forward to any

Of that story that

Might come my way

x

C L Couch

x

x

Before Dawn

Photo by Tao Yuan on Unsplash

x

Death and Saint Patrick’s Day

(x = space)

x

x

Death and Saint Patrick’s Day

(17 March 2022)

x

There has been

A death in the family

We will gather tonight

It might seem

As a wake

Though really it’s for comfort

Something pleasant

In all the difficulty

x

Which is maybe what

A wake is

Why the Irish developed

The remembrance

Bittersweet

Like coffee with sugar

Porter in a glass

x

Though the glasses

Won’t be broken

Ritually,

It might feel like a christening

Launching a spirit

Into heaven

While

Our part in having something

Unofficially good to do

x

Goodbye

Farewell

Fair winds, as sailors

From many nations say,

And following seas

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

x

Cry Caesar

(x = space)

x

x

Cry Caesar

(15 March)

x

I could talk of Caesar

It’s his ides

He died

He was killed

It was awful

Stabbed by two dozen knives

Of senators conspiring

Some of whom were killed

Themselves

After trying to escape

Or trying to stage a coup d’etat

Ending the republic

Staging instead

The empire

That would live as long

As the republic

Then fall into philosophies

And artifacts

x

Two millennia and some

We still talk about it

Assigned the play

We might be taking sides

Empire

Or dictator

Sadness all around

Without good sides

x

There is a better way

That republic idea

Seeded in democracy

That might not be so bad

For nurturing

And flourishing

Say, starting on the sixteenth

x

C L Couch

x

x

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91281949

x

In Case of War

(x = space)

x

x

In Case of War

x

I don’t want

To get shot

Or have a weapon’s blade

Tear into my muscle,

Going deeper

Verbal and emotional

Are bad enough

The flesh

Would probably be a final

Crime, perhaps

An act of war

Blood and tears

And everything that’s liquid

Punctured, rolling

Falling onto plastic

Or cement

Or earth

I vote for earth, of course

x

In case of war

I vote for earth

And if romance allows,

A last view of sky

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash

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