Unlikely Sabbath
(a kind of call to worship)
We
Understand
Misunderstand
(together)
The sabbath
As a time to go to church
To pray
Officially
For things we might remember
Afterward
Then be free of all of it
For food
For games
For preparing all the real time
To follow
The next day
Or
Instantly
As we might be driven
Driving
That is
Ourselves
But is the sabbath more than services
And really
Was it ever
Well
Ancient reminders
I suppose
The priests to the people
Saying
Or as if to say
By the tent
Then by the temple
In here is the
Holy of holies
Don’t forget it
Don’t forget
Our dedication
So
What is the sabbath
We might
Wonder
Being first
A seventh day
Created
A day for God to rest
And so
A model for
Ourselves
Modeled after God
After all
And so
First week
Completed
And so
Laid out for us
Six days of creating
Then a day
This day
To keep it holy
As in set apart
For
A spiritual reason
Like the fruits of
Field and vine
Set apart
For spiritual
Remembrance
And
I don’t know what
To say
Anymore
Except that it was
Said
Thank goodness not by me
To remember
As in have
The sabbath
It’s a discipline
To rest
An invitation
To play well
To remember
The source
Of love
And everything
That’s good
C L Couch
Photo by Sai De Silva on Unsplash
Child No More
The end of childhood
Clarke tells us
In a story
It’s about evolution
And we change
We develop
And someday with help
Maybe
Dramatically
Or drastically
We’ll grow beyond our knowing
Into something
New
And sometimes what is new is
Frightening
At the least it’s
Inconvenient
Packing up old things
Sometimes
Unpacking
The new things or
Waiting
For delivery
Depending on who’s helping us
Depending on resources
That maybe have arrived as
New capacities
Already
New
Ways
Of seeing things
Of understanding
Goodness
It’s a sci-fi story
After all
Speculation into future
Possibilities
I guess we have to grow
We can’t stay still on
Earth
Forever
It’s doesn’t work that way
For even Earth
Will change
And we won’t stay
We can’t
The Earth and us
Are changing now
C L Couch
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Photo by K8 on Unsplash
n. b.
Which doesn’t
Mean
We destroy the Earth
While we’re
Here
The cosmos will not welcome us
This way
And those who think to
Hurry Armageddon
Are close to a lunacy
Of strategy
And should be walking back
Any notions
Of playing God
Or playing
God
you know that thing
you know that thing
that
someone had said
about insanity
meaning
doing the same thing
(not working)
and expecting something different
(successful)
next
time
I don’t mean
the tungsten thing
you know
when
Edison tried a hundred filaments or so
to light a light bulb for
a while
‘cause
each time
he tried a different substance
and
in fact
could say he found
he found a hundred ways
not
to light
a light bulb
of course
then what happened
maybe not with Edison
was that
light bulbs were staying lit
too
long
and so they were
changed
to stay lit for
shorter lengths of
time
(like Shakespeare’s brief candle
meaning length
of life)
and so
less lengthy
so to say
light bulbs were re-invented
re-provided
thus
securing
among other things
our
disposable society
then there was
the Stanley Steamer
which
is
if similar
another story
c l couch
photo by Félix Girault on Unsplash
max
there are rough edges
next
to polished ones
rough things unattended
unattending
not worth much
except attention by
the way
of splinters
on the fleshy parts of fingers
or maybe
with greater pain
underneath
nails
we sand these away
work them over with varnish
and right angles
taking them
down
using nail guns
then attaching labels
with squiggly squares
(QR?)
promising of prices
and that’s wood
but it applies to fabric
too
and even bricks
so many things
in fact
in order
(and ordering)
to have a smooth
and gilt
world
without rough
except for sex sometimes
which in the morning
is forgotten
over
coffee
served with euphemistic language
and we shop
and look for
the next smooth things
to wear
c l couch
(not advocating hair-shirts at all—only a thought about rough edges, say, on trees)
photo by Lili Kovac on Unsplash
Where the Train Track Ends
(in spirit for Shel Silverstein)
Train tracks seem
Not
To end
And I suppose
Sidewalks
Don’t
Have to end as well
Though it
Seems
They end more often
Or at least we get
To see
Or maybe trip over
If we don’t
(or
someone says
to us
hey
it’s ending)
But train tracks end
Unless in a roundhouse
In a city
Where they end
But the trains are turned around
To go another way
Or the same
Way
They came
But
Underneath our trees
At Christmastime
(or for another reason
and
you know
there could be)
The tracks don’t end
Unless
There’s a reason
Meaning something’s broken
That
We need to fix
And we fix it
And our train goes on
Around
And for variety
Perhaps
We may
If we can
(if the train came with this)
Sound a whistle
Or
In the old
Days
Make some smoke
So I should confess
Perhaps
Our sidewalks were at least
A block away
From our cul-de-sac-ed
And sidewalk-less
Neighborhood
But I had
Train tracks in the basement
And then
To be precise
(and personal)
There was a flood
Down
There
Which was
An end
Though not
The end
Of
Train tracks
C L Couch
Photo by Todd Trapani on Unsplash
Deep and
Wide
(the call
and then the gathering)
Tomorrow’s
Juneteenth
Remembering
The
unrelenting drive toward freedom
After war
After the
smaller wars
That
Take us
One by one
Even
together
For a cause
To have a
life
That daily
speaks to
Choice in
where we go
No one to
intervene
Direction
Or allowance
●
To be free
Of that
ridiculousness
That is
itself
Free of ethics
Free of consideration
For the freedom
of the flesh
Itself
Herself
Or himself
Or in the
people
All my
people
As ways
The right to
be unchained
As in each
birthing
In each
house
●
How sad
Tragic
To have to
make the case
For liberty
To use up
energy
Needed for
So many
other
Needful things
In life
For enough
acquisition
Self-esteem
in work
And play
In laughing
with the children
Of our
legacy
●
These and
other lines
Established and
maintained
As on a ship
Where working
lines
Is vital
To the journey
●
Knowing when
to keep them taut
When to let
go
Of everything
To pause
within the wind
Maybe the
wind
That tricks
the journey
Of misdirected
Doctrine
Or information
Then agendas
Without evidence
Or conviction
of
Truth inside
●
Goodness
We go far
For only a
day
But if we
don’t remember
It seems we
repeat
Not the
better parts
But the
things
That bring
us down
Into a
whirlpool
Of unknown
ending
Though without
the likelihood
To brins us
Home
●
Juneteenth
Something to
do with Texas
Though the
nation
Wholly free
Should ring
throughout all states
And to the
world
New liberty
bells
From the
same carillons
That have
been sounding since
From Independence
Hall
And are not
we owed
All of us
Some room
inside that place
That forum
From the
start
When each
one aimed
First pled to
Europe
Then
Campaigned
Consciously
●
While pushing
on
Indigenous
From the
start
And the gross
Wrongheaded
And wrong
hearted
Soiled
Spoiled
Impractical sin
In presuming
to own
People
To work a
place
In which
Nothing was
avowed
For these
●
And by the
way
Of our
family
Traded for
And purchased
In the way
of hell
Against
Disgrace from
heaven
●
Then begin
Inside one’s
own
And all our
own
Words and
moves
Toward freedom
Centuries
Ago
Throughout
A woeful
Backward aga
Into the
struggle
Even for
this hour
Certainly
for this day
●
Juneteenth
A new day
For triumphant
calendars
For the
meaning
And the pleasuring
Owning for
Instead
Flesh
And home
And fear
only of God
In this
brightened hour
Followed by
another
In arriving
To the
lit-up day
Illustrious
And carried
to tomorrow
For a legacy
●
But in this
time
We have
Please own
it
The idea
The discretion
Humility
Restraint in
Knowing
And having
This second
Freely
Then with
hope
That anyone
might
Freely have
Into another
And another
Toward that
better age
To which we
add
In quiet
ways
Of love
And this
Our proclamation
Of the same
●
Amen?
Maybe we
could say
Syllables for
striving
An
Amen
C L
Couch
Photo by Pawel
Czerwinski on Unsplash
Lemur Looking
Who are you
I am a king
Maybe I’m a girl
But I’m a king
What is a zoo
Don’t look at me
I’ll decide
Who’s worthy
C L Couch
a flash response from Melissa Lemay’s prompt, https://melissalemay.wordpress.com/2024/06/03/melissas-fandango-flash-fiction-challenge-271/
I first read Grace's response at https://graceofthesun.com/playful-climb/
Photo by Stephen Hickman on Unsplash
(tag) #FFFC
clcouch123 
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