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Our Town

(x = space)

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Our Town

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If it were Our Town

Someone might say

Robb Elementary School

Uvalde

Texas

USA

The Earth

The mind of God

Who did not go in?

Everyone

Except those set there already

Children

Teachers

Targets

The few outside who wanted

To go in

Were kept away

An issue of control?

Of quieting bureaucracy?

It really wasn’t so bad

In there?

I know it’s unknown ‘til the time

What we would do

I’d be terrified

And I might count on those with

Uniforms and guns

To lead the way

Until they didn’t

We have to remember all of this

I’m sorry, but we do

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C L Couch

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More than 350 responding police officers took a “lackadaisical approach” to the Uvalde school massacre while accused gunman Salvador Ramos, who had never fired a gun before, killed 21 people, according to a preliminary report from the Texas House released Sunday.

Two teachers and 19 students were gunned down inside Robb Elementary School on May 24 while police, armed with weapons and protective material, lingered outside the school, then in the hallway for 77 minutes.

In that time, Ramos, 18, laid waste to joint classrooms, firing more than 100 times from a military style AR-15 rifle.

. . .

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-uvalde-school-shooting-robb-elementary-massacre-ramos-police-20220717-uclqp44oknh3tozaqrnp3rqsde-story.html?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=2022-07-17-Egregious-poor-

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“You know the old chestnut…all roads lead to Uvalde.”

(image and caption by) formulanone from Huntsville, United States – Uvalde! Uvalde!, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77144919

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Our Town, the play by Thornton Wilder

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The Impoverished

(x = space)

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The Impoverished

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It is another day

To wake up into misery

Sometimes a vivid

Dream

Takes me to

A place that is not

So spectacular but

I want to live there

And I wake up

And I’m here

I wake to the gray skies

Of war

Or my child is

Still sick

Or my child is gone

My children

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There is my own pathology

It hurts

And there is no promise

Of change for the better

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I wake into many

Who have problems

And they seep

Or crash into awareness

I have no money

Or my clothes are poor

My shoes don’t wrap around

My feet

So I have trouble moving

And I’m seen first

For the problems that I have

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I’m seen first

For the problems that I have

That’s how my friends know me

Or my family

Or anyone

First, I am the sad one

Or the needy one

The one with problems

I am an individual

Also a family

Or a nation

I grow to hate waking up

Like this

I grow to hate waking up

Can someone make

The day better?

Can I?

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A song could name this

But is no breath

For singing

There is no cause

Or there is

And I forget

It’s been too long

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I could say, Help me

But I don’t know how

Sometimes it’s

Antagonistic

The responses that I get

When I used to ask

Mostly it’s apathy

With closed pockets

I never get close to,

Which is fine

I don’t want your pockets

I want my own

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I want what I used to have

Or maybe never had

I want what I need

And a little more

So I am ready

When I hear of

Need

Someone

A family

Or a nation

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To give out of what I have

And a little more

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C L Couch

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Photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash

The Other Way

published 2 hours ago

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(leaves can testify)

(x = space)

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(leaves can testify)

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leaves can testify

an acceptable word tree

inherits earthly

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c l couch

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photo by guillaume bergaglia on unsplash

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The Violence

(x = space)

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The Violence

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I guess nowadays

It seems to me

Not to wax

Not in a rant but with

Cold observation

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A reader

And a hearer

And a watcher

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We go to

Wicked without order

(yes, we know it’s good

in New England)

No vision

No plan

Make war not love

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As if we’ve taken all the virtue

All the good things out of

Everything,

Which leaves us

(ask Oedipus

Creon

even Antigone)

Vanity

And hubris

A particular kind of cowardice

For bullying

An awful war

Frankly, an awful peace

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On the inside first

Then interpersonal

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Having arranged

For all of us

By all of us

Easy access to deadlier weapons

Lacking safeties

And restraints

And moderation

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Intentions once machined

To the center

Now lathed

At a slant

Until the work breaks

In the machine

Our better parts left

Ragged

Rough

Deadly points

Untreated

Left unsmoothed

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And then the other weapons

Too easy

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C L Couch

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Antigone. Ismene, dear sister,

You would think that we had already suffered enough

For the curse on Oedipus:

I cannot imagine any grief

That you and I have not gone through. And now—

Have they told you the new decree of our king Creon?

(Antigone by Sophocles)

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Photo by Amber Kipp on Unsplash

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The Wonder Dog

(x = space)

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The Wonder Dog

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I used to let

The dog go

In the creek

Taking off the leash

Once we were behind

The houses

What a happy dog

Upstream was all right

There was freedom in that,

Too

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Muscles got used

That needed using

The shaking of the chain

Hanging in the closet meant

That

All this could happen

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Once released

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C L Couch

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Water Flowing over Rocks

Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash

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Arts and Sciences

(x = space)

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Arts and Sciences

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It used to be

That art was the vision

Science the practice

(of the vision)

Thus there was connection

As between birth

And grown-up life

That was not ineffable

But practical

Workable

For visioning, producing

Of an age

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Now we don’t like each other

The theoretical

The practical

We grumble and we look

The other way

Well, to our way

If we must, we sigh

Whisper nearly sotto voce

For a bit of theory

Or a bit of usefulness

Or industry

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Music, math

The Renaissance

Philosophy

Reading, writing

How to build community

Through argument

And pipes

And water fountains

Statuary for the ages

Buildings that make sense

Can be maintained

And are beautiful

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They’re coming back, perhaps

I see new works in small towns

Better than returning is

Moving forward

Time for a new alliance

New connections

New community

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Make new friends

And keep the old;

One is silver

And the other gold

Not bad for an age

Every day a merger

Every breath a hope

In vision

Words

Plans

Building

And-or preserving

The streets, the place,

And planet

We all live along

Each one

Each other

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C L Couch

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Light in the Law Quad

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

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“Make New Friends” is a scout and camp song (a round) whose creators are unknown and whose lyrics have variations.

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On the Ecumenism of Species

(x = space)

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On the Ecumenism of Species

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Dogs and cats should share

Often, they do

They share heat when it’s cold

They can share toys

They can treat each other

As toys

Food is another matter

Their systems are different

So unless it’s An Incredible Journey

Situation,

They should eat apart

And eat apart

Be who each other is

They can rest together

Often, they do

And enjoy God’s-creature status

Both, together

All, together

Now

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C L Couch

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Photo by Madalyn Cox on Unsplash

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Sextant

(x = space)

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Sextant

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I have no idea how

One works

Somehow the sextants

Set

The way we need to take

In relation to

The stars’ own courses

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Like the lodestone

The sunstone

A compass

Or the stars themselves,

We go with an absurdity

Of faith

Considering how wide

The water

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How minimal the shorelines

And they

Save us against

The ocean’s

Featureless horizon

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A journey by design

Or an irony of pressing,

A crossing by

The sextant’s parsecs

Tentatively ending at

A port-of-call

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And the decision not

To yield but

To carry on,

Wayward sailors

Wayward children

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Seeking the

Navigator’s colors

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C L Couch

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U.S. Navy Quartermaster 3rd Class, practices using a sextant as part of a navigation training aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), 2018

By National Museum of the U.S. Navy – 180423-N-DL434-149, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70793138

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Qwerty

(x = space)

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Qwerty

(minus w, minus t)

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What do you want of me,

God?

Maybe the next hour

Or tomorrow

Or the moment

That is the only thing

I know for sure

There is

And now the next one

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What is your will

And should I ask?

Maybe I don’t need to

Maybe knowing is for

Greater ones

Than I

The ones for histories

Who rated visions

The certainly

Of steps to take

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I muddle

And you, reading,

Muddle like me

If you’re like me

Maybe it’s easy

There is an easy need

For something

And we move

We save considerations

For contemplation

Conversations

That may never happen

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If a bomb

Should crash this wall

If should be in bed

Because of illness

Then all there is to think about

If thought is clear

Is to survive the time

Allowed

Against sadnesses

Even the world’s evil

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Hunger

Should affect me thus

Or thirst for something safe

Or doubt for faith

Should that be the exchange

For everything vile

That may come upon me

Come upon us

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Since, actually,

I might be moved with

Greater intensity

Should it happen to you

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I shall believe

And ask

Even as confidence fades

That I shall ever know

That you shall ever tell me

What would please you

What would serve you

Not in an epic

But small verses

That could

Make

At least delineate

A life

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C L Couch

while I’m typing

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Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash

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