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A Tale of the River People

A Tale of the River People

 

I made a hole in my neighbor’s water

So that I could build a palace,

But the hole sucked my own water away

So I built a dam

 

Then I had my water, but it would not move;

It became still, and disease broke out

Along the shores that were unburied

When I made the dam

 

So I made a spillway and balanced just right

The movement of the water;

But my neighbor had no certainty of water now,

And while I was quarrying

 

And dam- and spillway-building,

My neighbor was amassing an army

And it attacked:

My palace was destroyed

 

And now along the water, a mass of rapids

And still pools, all in chaos,

There are two holes where once my neighbor lived

And with the scarred place I am left

 

C L Couch

 

 

By rheins, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56242794

 

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Stranger Rings

Stranger Rings

 

So many things turn

Wishful thinking

To reality

Crime into justice

Hope into whatever happens

Next

I hope for you the rings are true

And bring you something good

I don’t know about deserving

I try not to care

Judgement is not my job

And spiritual punishment

Not so much for our consideration

Let’s wish each other well

In the turning of the days

And the running of

Our mercies

 

C L Couch

 

 

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA01486

Mission: Voyager

 

Stranger Things, a melodramatic series on Netflix, created by the Duffer Brothers

a novel (novelization) will be out next year

 

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Weeping in Ramah

Weeping in Ramah

 

Indonesia

At Sulawesi

In Palu

Hundreds have been carried away

Souls from bodies

The living weep

They bury who can be recovered

They mourn

 

Might we change the pronoun,

Might we mourn?

They are our sibling hearts

The family

That lost too many children

To vicissitudes

In nature’s anger

Our indifference

 

Rachel weeps in Ramah

Because Babylon has taken

Her children away

Our children

 

C L Couch

 

 

Rescuers evacuate an earthquake survivor by a damaged house following earthquakes and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sunday. AP PHOTO

Hundreds Die in Indonesia Quake, Tsunami

https://www.recorder.com/Over-800-dead-in-Indonesia-quake-and-tsunami-toll-may-rise-20559009

 

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Odd Gratitude

Odd Gratitude

 

The weight is in my eyes

Just over my lungs

Inside the muscles

Pressing on the bones

Everything moves, anyway

Fingers, hands

Knees stretch

I blink, swallow, turn my neck

To see what’s what

 

The day’s ahead, and I’m

Thankful

Surprised?  Shouldn’t be

Life is nearly always worth it

And always, really

There’s torture in the world,

Which must challenge the price

To pay

 

But this is being tired

Really tired

And there’s pain

Though not enough

To wreck the odds

Of there being maybe many

Good things ahead

 

C L Couch

 

 

Gratitude Stones

https://www.firefliesandmudpies.com/gratitude-stones/

http://www.yessafechoices.org/parents/character-education-corner/gratitude

 

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A Coda for the Hero

A Coda for the Hero

 

A face broken by my pain

Looks down at me

While I fade into unbordered places

All perception rendered into

What will come

Sleep, I hope

And good dreams for a change

And wakefulness to a world

I could never know

Until I come upon it

You’ll be there

And everyone

The everyone I can recall

And so many new to meet and

Love for the first time

 

C L Couch

 

 

9/11 Photos, Creative Commons 2.0

https://americanlegalnews.com/hero-fbi-agents-and-first-responders-sick-and-dying-from-9-11-exposure/

 

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Looking at You

Looking at You

(first films)

 

Have you ever seen The Big Sleep?

Like the earlier Maltese Falcon

Philip Marlowe

Sam Spade

Raymond Chandler

Dashiell Hammett

Many people say the plots are convoluted

They say that because they are

So we watch for character

The personalities

The texture

The underlying value

 

I like both films a lot

They are cynical stories

But there’s an underline of care

Otherwise, why watch?

I know it’s fashionable to avoid a message

Sometimes the words get through, anyway

 

They are in the folds of a trenchcoat

In a look from woman’s or man’s eye

In the outcome, which only

Works if

We look subcutaneously

Appreciate not the lack of technical justice

But the abundance of

Sound conclusions and livable ethics

Manifest

 

I’m sorry, I don’t want to give away

The endings

Have I said too much?  Sorry, again

But watch the movies, anyway

They have action

They have dialogue that ricochets

Sharper than bullets on stone

They have energy

They bring the oddest hope onto the screen

Something to talk about on the way home

 

C L Couch

 

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The Temple on Pot-Bellied Hill

The Temple on Pot-Bellied Hill

(built and carved before the wheel)

 

We would not go inside

 

We built and then retreated

Outside the presence of it

As God came in more and more

To dwell

We ate our meat close by

So that we could build again

These were our days

 

It’s what we did and what we knew

And there was little more

We built because

The God would have it so

We were commanded without words

Only with the knowing

That it must be so

And more and more

 

God came to dwell

We weakened, and we died

And still the temple rose

 

The last of us will finish it

God’s house

God’s cave above the ground

God’s palace in a desert place

To reign over scorpions

Rocks and sand

Snakes and

Predators who fly

Or those who seek the carrion

After another’s kill

 

This will be God’s place

We will move on

 

C L Couch

 

 

Cradle of the Gods, National Geographic Channel.  All about Göbekli Tepe.

(image at) http://www.milliyet.com.tr/amerikan-arkeoloji-enstitusu-gundem-2577893/

 

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Hello, Kitty

Hello, Kitty

 

(an image of a tiger)

 

Isn’t he amazing?

I say he because the caption says so

I have no trouble believing that

The female is amazing

He sits among the roots and shadow

Of the tree

 

Resting or waiting?  Is he

Hungry or in love or meditative?

Is he tired?

 

What will happen next?

What happened?

I think he lay there for a long while,

A study in stillness

He stayed until he decided

What he wanted next

 

C L Couch

 

 

A young male tiger rests in the roots of a banyan tree, in Ranthambhore national park, India. Photograph: Chris Brunskill/Save Wild Tigers/Eye On Tiger

appearing in The Guardian Green Light

 

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Magic Tricks

Magic Tricks

 

All the illusions that

Help us through the day

 

That looks all right

I have room for

That

I’ll have time later to

Get to that

A little bit of that will do

No harm

 

I have these

Maybe you have them, too

 

C L Couch

 

 

u_dg9pheol

https://pixabay.com/en/magic-tricks-magician-japan-magic-3644528/

 

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