(x = space)
x
x
Onion Snow
x
Crocuses and
Daffodils were
Growing
There is fog
Above the ground
Where condensations
Clatter without
Sound
Strange time of year
Odd conflict
Teaching flowers and
The land
Something
Via snow
Withholding spring
x
Gentle war
We could learn
Without the bombs
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Eva Härich on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
It’s International Women’s Day
x
Women holding children
There are men, too,
It’s the men making the choices
For the war
Women rule, here and there
Some are good
Some are bad
Women still earn less than men
Too many live reactive lives
Rather than pushing
As any should be
With dreams, ambitions
Owning life
Rather than waiting for the chance
As if it were a gift
From men
x
So much I do not understand
But I think I understand that much
x
Frankly,
And you know
Too much is wrong
And it should change
x
C L Couch
x
x
“Love to Ukraine ❤️”
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Published 10h ago
x
(x = space)
x
x
To Ishmael
x
What will be left
Between
These two countries now?
What of Isaac and Ishmael
Of neighbors
And of families?
How will they get along?
Whom will they know
To trust at all?
x
Will they come to a table,
Meet in a field?
Shall the words of Mizpah follow
Or better
An embrace?
x
We have these words
Restoration
Reconciliation
How will we enact these
Make them manifest?
How might peace abound
While the search
For food and intact buildings
Is abundant?
x
They came together
To bury their father
To bury death;
Nothing more
Broke out between
Them, then
x
Might generations know
Viable forgiveness
Dead anger
Such as render borders blurred
In teary vision,
In homely
Transactions:
Dinner by
A fire that heats and cooks
With chairs left out
For friends
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Gradienta on Unsplash
x
(x = prayer)
x
x
Useful Prayer
x
What do we ask
For Ukraine
And for Russia?
Pious, frankly useless things
That everyone be safe
That the war stop now
That hearts and minds
Be changed
Well, that last one we can work on
We know you can work on
Done through truth,
Sometimes through righteous prophecy
Sometimes in dreams
x
Change minds and hearts, then,
Lord
Help us to change ours
Help us to change theirs
‘Til ours and theirs are one
In peace
Not because sides win
But because in being made
And set to live,
All sides are one
x
Yes, and to keep folk safe
To stop the war right now,
Because miracles
Are nonetheless
And notwithstanding
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Sergey Vinogradov on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
War in Ukraine
x
If I lived where I live
In Ukraine,
I would be in a battlefield
And would have been here
For some time
I can’t imagine
Mostly because I don’t want to
Explosions down the street
Bullets through the windows
We are involved in
The war on terror
The war on drugs
A cyber war
And violence because our races
Don’t get along
And for other reasons
I’ve been accosted
But mostly enjoy
Citizenship without warfare
On my street
x
But in eastern Ukraine
This has been the state for years
Kitchens are not kitchens
Living rooms can’t be
For living anymore
And now my country’s ringed with
Tanks and soldiers and what else
And I have no gun
And don’t know how to take a side
I simply want to have today
And a good chance for tomorrow
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Maurice Pehle on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Horde
x
Today is my mother’s birthday
She would be in her nineties, now
She died in her fifties
Cancer got her
Got inside my father, too
Is inside my brother
x
I could swear, but calling it
A bastard doesn’t matter
Cancer doesn’t care
It simply comes to cells and changes
Them so that they’re not good
Anymore
Like turning faithful into infidels
Except, again, cancer isn’t interested
x
As far as we know
It has no soul
It simply ruins everything
And we can’t cure it yet
Though there are treatments
x
Hard, difficult,
Life-changing treatments
Not like quinine (vitamin C) for scurvy
Not like the shots
That kept and keep
Polio and small pox away
Cancer treatments are harsh and
Guarantee nothing
The cancer might not go away
It might go away
And then come back
Survivors have success stories
But we are so far from
Eradication
x
We should include a clause in every
Contract, every negotiation
Domestic, international
A commitment to take part
In eliminating
Cancer
With ongoing maintenance,
A best and last campaign
Into whatever hell
Is fit for plagues
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Strange Day
(14 February)
x
Charlie Brown
Gets an empty mailbox
We read the messages
On candy hearts
My mother made
A pink cake, heart-shaped
There were notes of
Love sent between the
Martyr and the followers
Such a strange day
We’ve made of this
Not bad
Sometimes bittersweet
Mostly strange
Red roses
That mean passion
Champagne, perhaps
Chateaubriand or other
Famous dish
Made for two
I forgot, Cupid
And the little round angels
Firing arrows into people
That don’t hurt unless
You don’t want
To feel that way
Strange day
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by jabez Samuel on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Overnight
x
We got snowed on
Last night
x
Not much
Enough to cover everything
x
The new look
Will not last
x
People have to travel roads
To get to work
x
And everything
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Nathan Wolfe on Unsplash
“Faceless Snowman”
x
(x = space)
x
x
Split Life
(12 February)
x
Today is the birthday
Of Abraham Lincoln
Peer Kentuckian
Who finished growing up
Somewhere else
First Republican
And best
Sixteenth President
And we will argue
x
Tall, wearing a beard because
Someone said it would
Look good
Splitter of rails
And he had other talents
Self-taught
Until he got to schools
Lawyer, legislator
Failed entrepreneur
Failed at many jobs
Not a success story
Until the one great thing
x
Freer of slaves, though hardly alone
In that
Slavery should never
Have happened;
We’ve been paying for it ever since
Until together
We might march on
x
Moderator of the Civil War
What a wicked way
To spend one’s fifties
Railed (another way)
Until an overwhelming victory
Came to pass
And then
To count the dead
And give them stones
Play “Dixie” on the White House lawn
Killed a few days later
(not for that)
x
His remains buried back in
Springfield, Illinois
His body for the nation
His spirit unto judgment
Thence we hope
To paradise
And so it could be
For all
x
C L Couch
x
x
split-rail fence at Gettysburg
photograph by Jesse Lee Tucker – own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51840069
x
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