Still (and Superior) Life in Berlin
for the cats of Kathleen D
American ex-pat cats
They look out windows five floors
Up
They overhear airy conversation
Inherently translating,
Since (and to answer the question)
German cats meow in German
C L Couch
German Rex (naturally)
Praxis
Something good happens
Something bad,
Something horrible
We move on
In our lives, good news
Or bad, sometimes horrible
We move on
Where are we going
That requires constant
Moving minds,
Restless spirits always
Leaving, never resting
In places of crisis?
No time taken to repair
To sit still and know
That we have talents
To make better
So many we encounter
Training missed in
Intuition, empathy
Things that rarely pay
Victories without profit
Save soothing, maybe saving
Souls
Next time, we might say,
As we meet
Then walk around
Needs on the street
Or next door
Or so much closer
Truly
C L Couch
Revolution
(tracing the season’s sunlight)
The day descends
While shadows rise
Late-year days are like this
We notice early darkness
C L Couch
Peace, Prevail
(for the USA and all)
Red leaves on trees
Against the season’s
Bright blue sky,
Branches lightened in
Late-afternoon, autumn
Sun
Vision of nature
Hope for a nation
C L Couch
Let’s Look for a Reason
(commending her candidacy)
So
She’s flighty as we
Think women are—
No, that’s not right
She’s not serious-minded—
No, again not right
How about
She doesn’t convey authority
As our commander should—
Nope, can’t make that
Argument, either
But she does write e-mails,
Good!—there’s reason
For the pillory
Those things we usually
Use to keep them
Down just weren’t working
Out this time
Because she is a person
For all seasons?
No, she’s still a woman—
Can’t have that
C L Couch
My favorite thing is not to think or write in a partisan way. I’m registered to vote though not a member of any political party (though I’ve always favored the New Year’s Eve, should it be formed, and think the Pirates Party in Iceland holds promise). I do believe that the final prejudice to overcome in the current election for President will be in fact the problem over gender. Hence this verse about that.
For All Souls
(2 November)
Rosemary for remembrance
But it will be in Spain and Mexico
USA and other places, as
Candy shaped into skulls,
Bright-color picnics set out at night
With our dead—and many
Kindred flames of candlelight
Yesterday the living church
Today the predeceased who will
Stay a little closer
Families gather ‘round the stones
De abuelos, tíos, quizás los niños
All whose loss is lessened for a
Time as an altogether family
For the feast
C L Couch
Imagine
I heard the song last night
And now read the story in the morning:
Forty percent of vertebrates gone
From planet Earth,
Sixty-six (the number of books
In the Protestant Bible) by
The middle of our new century
Why do these die?
In part, because they do
And in part because we kill them
There are two ways to feel convicted,
Each way requiring a life
Will we let our world live? Will
We let our charges thrive
Or maybe better yet
Simply leave them be?
We have pushed living
Over the cusp of extinction
Pulling back destructive practices
Under the edge again
Might hurt
But it’s pain we’ve earned,
The cost of killing kingdoms
And the genus
Try feeding creature kinds
More like kindred we respect;
Tend if only for a while
Then we might inspire
Conclusions for a future
Place
And process
C L Couch
“Imagine a world without animals. You’ll soon see how much we need them”
Mid-Atlantic States’ Autumn Afternoon
Soon it’s three o’clock:
My favorite hour at this time
of year,
when daylight starts further
to fall, because it’s set to do so
When stark-yellow transports
will go by
smooth and grumbly under
billow-clouds with cotton faces
deepening
They say, laughing while we
run for porches that have
ceilings,
Enjoy this grey day
Its lack of definition presses
romance through everything
beneath
an amber sun
Bread Alone
A crumb set on a windowsill by a wayward mouse
Seen through the dust, returning to grab up
The part of grain
Clever mouse
Hungry mouse
Field mouse—headed back where it belongs
Leave it alone
It’s an old house
We might need an ally
You want to be in the right place, too
C L Couch
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