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Twilight of the Gods

Twilight of the Gods

 

Last night we sat out

On the porch

The heat of day upon us

A little lessened

One cat on the rail

(screens on the other side)

One cat stretched out upon the

Teak dining table,

The center of a set purchased after

A fire burned half of the house

A year and more ago

 

We watched lightning in the distance

I tried to count the miles

But didn’t hear anything

The storm must have been far away

The lightning cracked again in silence

Split that part of night

So far away

 

I had been reading of the death of Baldur

And now could wonder if he might

Be falling through the sky to Earth

Where we could mourn him, too

With all the gods and, yes, the giants

All the seasons of the year

All trees and even metals

Other elements, so says the storyteller

 

But Baldur went to Hel and hell

As the Norse configure these

My version cannot last

Though it made me sad enough

To wish more beauty, even slain

To Earth

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Marc Clinton Labiano on Unsplash

 

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A London Bridge

A London Bridge

 

The world might fall down

Like ashes and posies and the rose

And I might still be here

Not in a privileged place

Heavens, no

But in my corner near

A wide and tall, empty room

Where I keep passionate discipline

That must sound odd

But I’m here every day, it seems

(hospitals notwithstanding)

More and more, no matter what

(we’ll find out about the hospitals)

I create

Or better (truer) co-create

Something

 

Something good? I hope so

I don’t know

I’ve earned not enough to have

It all alone

But as each day affords

(in every way)

I will be in my place

Where I need few things:

Air, moving air, windows, walls for

The windows, a writing machine

And, as Erasmus has been cited

About books,

With whatever left some food and drink

 

I’m here right now

Maybe I’ll be with you soon

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Harshil Gudka on Unsplash

 

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God Is, Briefly

God Is, Briefly

 

Something short and pithy

About God

(who asks for this)

God is love, we know

And we say

God is great

God is good

(part of a common blessing in

the USA)

If God weren’t good

We wouldn’t want God

To be great

Caprice of gods

Belongs elsewhere

I’m not sure where

God is good

God is great

God is love

On this column

Rests so much

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Ioan Sameli on Unsplash

 

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Life on Neptune

Life on Neptune

 

I selected Neptune

Because I’ve never read

Anything speculative about it

Most of the time, it looks blue

On a map

Like a blue piece

Of sea glass

I might have around somewhere

Life on Neptune would be

Hard

Poison for an atmosphere

Contrary gravity

So distant from our first home

More so from life-giving sun

How grace might provide a

Reason for the colony

 

We’d be that much closer to

Life among the stars

In company with everything far-flung

In our system and

Not to dissemble

Our own galaxy

We’d have to think that way, or else

The nearness of our labors

In such a lifeless place

Static resources notwithstanding

Should drive us mad

For having dared

Such faraway commitments

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by M W from Pixabay

 

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Sunday Matinee

Sunday Matinee

 

A deep sigh is a good thing

Unplanned

It takes regret

Folds it into wings and lets it go

Not that it will leave

For good but

Might fly out of grasp

Maybe out of mind before

It re-alights

And I have to take it back

 

Exhalation causes other things

To leave

Molecules we’d rather do without

Maybe some toxic atoms

Elements of life that will work better

Somewhere else

Lead and mercury

Irradiated particles that come from

Life too near a glowing factory

These days

 

It’s all right

Nothing much more dangerous than

When the smoke rolled out

From Pittsburgh to

Its suburbs

Generations’ mischief

Doesn’t seem to change

 

Like parents to campsites, we should leave

The world a better place for

Children

We gave up on that

I’m not sure why

 

C L Couch

 

 

“Paper Plane” by Xavier Ríos

La fabrica de nubes – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68404545

 

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Fantasia

Fantasia

 

1

I dreamed a dream last night

In which my jacket or some such

Kept getting caught in thorns

I’d get free and then right away, it seemed,

Get caught up again

I don’t know how many times this happened

I was helped at least once by someone

Else, and someone said

To be kind

That thorns are like that

Then the dream went

Where dreams go

 

2

I was looking through the porch screens

This morning to whatever was outside

Everything was still—I don’t think

It ever was so still

And then under a tree, while still on

The tree, I saw some branches moving

Everything above was quiet

But some branches below, as if to be mischievous

Were circling ‘round

I saw one branch was twirling

Maybe there were squirrels on the branches

Though I didn’t see them

The dancing carried on for a while

And didn’t actually stop

 

It was that the entire tree, many stories

High, was moving, too

I guess the wind picked up

And maybe on those branches there were squirrels

Chipmunks, grinnies maybe

(as I’ve heard someone call them)

I’m not sure an explanation lessens

Magic

And really all I was saw were leaves dancing as

If to a flute

With one branch twirling

 

 

3

 

I was driving into town and saw

A billboard I’d not seen before

Announcing something medical, maybe

An urgency for testing

 

I could see the word BLOOD in all-caps

And also see that that it had been torn off

At the bottom, many times

As if something were clawing

Or something offering a review

And rejection of the word

 

As if in protest

As if in need

 

Blood for blood

I’ve heard of it

I’m not stupid

I don’t know what it means

 

C L Couch

 

 

Akazienstachel (eventuell Robinia pseudoacacia?), Standort Nähe Waldfriedhof in Leverkusen-Schlebusch, Landschaftsschutzgebiet „Unteres Dhünntal“.

TipFox – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49029195

 

grinny – Urban Dictionary

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=grinny

The Pennsylvania, Ohio, or West Virginia term for a chipmunk.

 

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Coinage

Coinage

 

Love and fear

Two sides

Some would have it

Of the same

And if the toss should land it on

The edge,

Maybe it’s indecision

Or we get to choose the motivation

For our actions

 

What is the substance

Of the coin? I think it might be

Will

Something not for tossing

But for extracting from a pocket

When it’s time

Not for throwing

But for touching texture

Choosing what to live

Each time

Until instinct

Make imagination

And will

Habit

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by Markus Lindner from Pixabay

 

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Nothing but Blue Skies

Nothing but Blue Skies

 

A lesson from The Lathe of Heaven

Once we lose the blue in sky

We do not get it back

No matter how we rework the world

 

My guess is

We get it gray

Not a fashion gray or gray painted for

Attractive shutters

 

But gray the color of pollution

(have it plain)

How our factories and cities make it

 

So we could find it now

The sullen gray

Somewhere a quotidian gray

Increasing

 

C L Couch

 

 

The Lathe of Heaven, a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin

Photo by Joel & Jasmin Førestbird on Unsplash

 

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Ice Age

Ice Age

 

Nothing moving

All is frozen

There might be life in there

We won’t know until we

Excavate

 

I guess I’ve known people like this

I hope I don’t become one

Inside, that would be terrifying

(no fun for a claustrophobe)

I can do much with a illusion

Light, space, and motion

Eventually

 

It would all come through

What I’ve pretending

While the borders would come closer

And I’d need

More medication or something

 

Pray, let’s not be frozen

Keep it supple, keep it moving

Use whatever means

Short of murder

To chip through, if that’s all

There is to reach

The inner core

Not for samples but

(this is not clinician-speaking)

But for release

Of something real

 

Life through to the surface

And the light of day

Time and space to beckon

Once again

The living can respond

Then take back

And then move forward

In thawed time

 

C L Couch

 

 

An artist’s impression of ice age Earth at glacial maximum.

Ittiz – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9237442

 

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