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Touchstones

Touchstones

 

I’m looking for

I’m always looking for

Something small and elegant

Like a Fabergé egg, perhaps

Or an egg-sized trilobite

The larger things

Belong in museums

Where we can see them safely

Mostly

Hoping crowds can keep themselves at bay

They can’t

 

I’ll take my palm-sized treasures

Though, like moon rocks, the Fabergé

Would be too much

I’ll take my fossils

Or a stone polished by water

Or the found things

I’ve made into tableaux

Enjoy retired moments

Before I go

Outside again

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Kunj Parekh on Unsplash

 

5

Future Tense

Future Tense

 

Mostly, I’m hoping

Some of this will lie around

Like Claudius’s second copy

According to the novel

To be found under an urn

Behind a shelf that no one sought

To look (behind)

For ages

 

That dusting off

(however that’s done

with electrons)

There will be some words

From someone we didn’t know

Maybe some initials,

Half a word for clues

 

We’ll read

And have two sets of wondering:

What was this person saying then?

What is this person saying now?

The first we’ll most likely

Never know

The second will be up to us

We own the words, now

 

C L Couch

 

 

(I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves)

Photo by Tistio on Unsplash

 

7

Today’s Apology

Today’s Apology

 

Sorry, I come to this tardily

Today

In the morning, I was at

The doctor’s

And came away, which I guess

Is something

Then I wandered for a while

Stopped at the store

Wandered again

It is bright summer

 

Because there’s air-conditioning

In my car,

I have no complaints

How are you?

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

 

10

Newly Wise

Newly Wise

 

The comet has been passing

I haven’t seen it

There’s too much ambient light

Too many clouds

Or too much haze

I did pretty well with Hale-Bopp

And I’ve seen good photographs of this one

That might be all there is

 

At least for days we haven’t been

Waiting for the end

As was the way with comets’ appearing

Reappearing

We know our plagues

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by JC Gellidon on Unsplash

 

8

The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown

 

And if we remember

Anything,

Let’s remember

God is love

Even inside the pit

Whose floor no one

Above has found

God is not only

On the floor but also

Underneath,

Propping up the Earth

Until all prisoners

Are released

Until the harrowing

Is done

Until what remains in hell

Is nothingness,

Defeat

 

The devil without a job

Receives an invitation

To go above,

Below

Wherever devils

Have met with God

Before

No victory lap

No dumping Gatorade

The winner loves the loser

There is a reckoning

And everything

Has mattered

This is no rehearsal

 

And it can mean something

If not all

For God to offer

To the devil

Forgiveness on the way

To freedom

Knowing such

Practiced usurpation

Could turn it down

Remain there, alone

Waiting for a

Final confrontation,

Reading

And misquoting Scripture

All this time

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Aida L on Unsplash

 

2

Look

Look

(listen)

 

Creation’s green

And blue and yellow

And by extension

Brown the tree

And gray in shadow

Black the city street

Red the bricks across

Silver steel

On buildings, too

I’m not sure what to say

About the color glass

No colors

Or all

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Jessica Ruscello on Unsplash

Treasure Island Flea Market, San Francisco, United States

 

7

Attending

Attending

 

God speaks

Through storm

And through the rising flower

Listen

For the goodness

And, if it has to be, chastisement

Before all love returns or

So it seems

From a place it never left

The human will and mind and spirit

Love of all

Excelling loves

Perfection so near

In moving water and the fire that for now

Is contained

Inside dissolution

Ruin or old age

Waiting for will to turn so that

The paradox

The ears to hear will hear

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Ganapathy Kumar on Unsplash

Comet NEOWISE seen from Rio Rancho in New Mexico, USA.

 

16

It Doesn’t Toll for Thee

It Doesn’t Toll for Thee

 

Wrong people get the message

Wrong ones think they’ve

Wronged—

Things are so awful,

What did we do?

 

Those who ask typically deserve

Nothing of an answer, for

Nothing did they wrong

God does not wring the faithful,

Even if grayed

Might be the faith

 

Those who have worse-wronged

The people and the planet

Rarely ask after

What they’ve done

Or realize the reckoning is for them

While the faithful, like

Lazarus,

Own paradises, now

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Ashwini Chaudhary on Unsplash

Bell at Tungnath temple – highest Shiva temple.

 

12

The Year When We Do Nothing

The Year When We Do Nothing

(pandemic time)

 

This should have been

The year when we do nothing

When we live with fear and boredom

And are resolute

When we soberly keep up with the news

And mourn the passing of so many

When we sing from window to window

As was done in Italy

Finding all the gestures that we can

Safely to say we’re here

We’re counting

We weep

And we maintain hope as bravely as we can

 

A year when we remember

Prioritize

Keep perspective

Love each other, those who are leaving us,

All who remain

As carefully as possible

In a year, we can have expectations

We’ll be smarter, then

About how to live

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Artur Aldyrkhanov on Unsplash

Valensole, France

Bokeh in Lavender

 

6

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