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Hump Day

Hump Day

(be nice)

One term

Fall term, I think

There was a student

Amanda

Who came into class each Wednesday

Declaring it was hump day,

Which was a good thing for her

(declaring it, and it being Wednesday)

In a fifteen-week semester, most of

Another week was done

I imagine in all our versions of work weeks,

We can relate

Amanda, then, would help us understand

Wednesday to be both an arch day

And a day between

(good work, Amanda)

On either side the keystone lay

Half the week

Even one weekend day on either side

If we accede, traditionally,

Sunday as the first day

We learn that there is symmetry

We learn that there is none

And there is virtue,

Even wider goodness

In each way

But here’s something cleanly halved

With a marker in its place

Unevenness is fine

But in the middle of each week

We may enjoy appreciable halves

In the count of days

I write Thursday, by the way, which means

The second half of the week is

Sliding into weekend

C L Couch

By Wilson44691 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15414176

Dromedaries in the Negev

November 8, 2018 0

Victimhood

Victimhood

(a reverie, a study)

Evil is too easy

Is it really?

Maybe on the inside

A quick turn, then stay

In that direction

Me, first

You don’t exist

Everything is fodder

For possession

And control

The very stuff of the universe

Should be mine

And then it’s gone

I have nothing

There’s a lesson in legacy

The tyrant is forgotten

Except for notes that tell the truth

And finally

The evil ones are burned

Like autumn leaves in the backyard

(how it used to be)

Effigy and memory

And was this easy?

Yes, and lazy, too

Everything subverted to

A contract with the luck of the devil

A genie who grants wishes and

Scratch-like

Always laughs the last

Because the house of hell always wins

Once entered by

The gullible who think

That profit is a plot

Hard work is another matter for

Good people

The suckers, so I always thought

The despot

And now I am ash

Blown off the foot in the tread

Of someone righteous

Whose agencies are angels

A surrogacy of judgment

My victims

Lazarus

Living in a better house, the house of God forever

While I diminish

To a speck

And then am nothing

No matter left

Nothing

C L Couch

Christopher Michel

Ramesseum in Egypt

November 7, 2018 1

So Many Things Have Thorns

So Many Things Have Thorns

Saint Paul had a thorn,

I understand

Sometimes I feel as if I’ve swallowed

A rose bush

And the thorns now pierce the skin from

Inside

Watch out, don’t get too close

You’ll hurt yourself

C L Couch

SimonMettler at Unsplash

November 6, 2018 1

Allow Me

Allow Me

Let me introduce myself

I’m the one who’s on the other side

Of the story

No longer can I qualify the

Hero set on a horse

Questing for a sword with which

To win a realm of

Sparkling towers and one to be rescued

Inside

Who might instead

Rescue me

(I’m not that good at feints and lunges)

Maybe I could serve as a

Wizard (fine word from Arabic,

because the calling is exotic—would an Arab

ever find me exotic?)

I know little of enchantments

But when it comes to mistakes to

Learn someone against,

Yes, I’m there

It could be fun to mentor someone who could be

A monarch

Or a tailor or a teacher

Or a plumber or any child to

Grow up someday

I imagine, too,

It will break my heart

As all good teachers feel

With a loss

Or a win

C L Couch

November 5, 2018 1

Weekend Warring

Weekend Warring

It’s Sunday, and I wonder

What to do

Where does an outcast go

To Zoar or another city of refuge

Will I be taken on

And how do I breathe the air

Of those who had abandoned me,

Now empty

It’s a search for something

A church without a church

See the steeple

Where are the people

A confessing place

Otherwise, an empty chapel

Would do well

Or a ruin of a larger place

Where faithful life might have been teeming

Once

And no longer

Through caprice

Of ownership or demographics

A tall room for birds now

Maybe those who listened

To Saint Francis

I don’t mean to hide

I am energized by people

As sometimes they have been by me

Even though they took too much

Last time

And what is left is wondering

And, yes, wandering, too

A walk outside beside a grave

A columbarium, mausoleum

A museum to the dead

Though I think it might be good

Remembrance

And for the living,

We who are outside

Not even looking in, anymore

Each of us stays in place

Waiting

Attending

C L Couch

Leon Martinez

November 4, 2018 1

A Little Hermeneutic for a Saturday Morning

A Little Hermeneutic for a Saturday Morning

(1 Corinthians 12:17)

If all were an eye

Which is a phrase I heard

(maybe in translation)

Then the body would have

Nothing else to do

Beyond looking

Sounds dull and

V R notwithstanding

Two-dimensional

Only when the body is all active

Is there interest and

Engagement with all the creation

That’s around us

And with the Genesis maker

We can say

(we have mouths)

That this is good

C L Couch

By Edgar Degas – High Museum of Art, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28897481

November 3, 2018 0

Leaving Church

Leaving Church

(all souls day)

The living church remembered

Now in the season

Hallowtide

We can recall who’s gone ahead

Who maybe holds a door

For the rest

Whatever our next jobs might be

I’ve lost too many

Witnesses

Pillars

Walking prayers for me

While mostly they were they

More than an idea of a person

Or a symbol

Or an inspiration

Beyond living day to day

Flawed

Moody

Qualifying me for our companionship

Until one gone

And then another

C L Couch

By Klearchos Kapoutsis from Santorini, Greece – Zaduszki, uploaded by Yarl, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25289705

The Catholic church celebrates Zaduszki (“All Souls Day”) one day after the All Saints Day. Photo from the Polish cemetery of Osobowice in Wroclaw.

November 2, 2018 1

Living Church

Living Church

(all saints day)

I sing a song of the saints of God

Small s people

Some of the names we know

Many, many, many

We will not

But this is their day

Your day

A day for living in the church

For the church

The kirke

The iglesia

Is people, translated

And without translation

Who could know?

Another song mentions a spark

But really it takes a fire

A fire on the inside

Enflaming eyes and ears

The touch, the taste, the word

Senses made alive

We burn together

Heritage and prophecy

Say so

It is the living church in irony,

For fire consumes

It can be used in punishment

Or condemnation

It makes a pillar for a promised people

Its clouds guiding by night

Set fire in the only safe and saving way

The saints of God are led

And leading

Keep us going

Take us there

C L Couch

Isabella Thomas (right) and Starla Williams-Neeley chat while serving the annual Thanksgiving dinner at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Milwaukee. Lynnda Guyton (center) organized this year’s meal. Also serving were (from left) Mary Banks and Denzel and Jasmine Tidmore. Credit: Kristyna Wentz-Graff

Free Meals Make Thanksgiving for Many in Milwaukee

http://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/free-meals-make-thanksgiving-for-many-in-milwaukee-v036kfj-134474133.html

November 24, 2011

Don Behm reporting

November 1, 2018 0