Born in out of the USA
Labor Day
Holiday
For sales
Last gasp
Before
We must admit
School has begun
Last
Swim in the community pool
There might be fireworks
Tonight
Last flags out front
For a while
And should there be a last red
White
And blue
Parade
The turning
Of
The cultural
New year
This is my country
And I love it
C L Couch
Photo by Jennifer R. on Unsplash
2 patriot verses
Patriot Dreams
I love my country
Though sometimes
It’s hard
To recognize
For violence
Yes
Also disorder
In the halls of politics
And justice
It seems that we all
Lean
Maybe time
To say so
And admit we can do better
Be larger
Than one interest
So to legislate
Even to judge
I am this
And I am that
My group is this
But I can care
Bigger than
That
And must
To make intact
And keep intact
The nation
From the privilege of chaos
And the run of evil
Ripping through
Any sense
Of unity
Faltered
Flawed
We can do better
Larger
Though the irony must be
That patriot feeling
And intent
Be shown in smaller
Ways
The things of families
And of neighborhoods
Leave me alone
Should not be our working words
Not since
We thought
To work out something
‘Gainst an empire
Knowing that
Solitary items matter
As matter
Individuals
Remember
Though
That birthing seems
Separate
But by necessities
Is actually conjoined
That dying
For some choices might be
Shared as well
That we are in our skins
And inside
Our interests
But we do better
Not for
Groupthink
But when we work it
Healthily
Together
By “patriot dream”
(ethereally good)
We may try
(waking
hale)
Vision
Turned like
Named and unnamed blocks
Into
Democratic strategy
And our
Republic’s practice
God save America
All Americas
And both hemispheres
A planet
Nation
For with reason
Any people
In
The world
May
Build this
Choices in smaller things
The easy things
Be easy
While we also have the larger
And complex
Thus
Vote for
Service
For security
Love of nation
Love of home
Families reconstructed
In any number
Blood
And also water
Both safely
Required
We share
The nation’s business
While invested
In
Our own
The larger one
Be ours
Indifferently approached
Perhaps
(check voting
statistics
far as well as near)
But we live on the promise that
We make this
(large
and small)
Our own
Sustaining it in
Quotidian
As well as come-November ways
C L Couch
Photo by Sardar Faizan on Unsplash
New Season
I saw them
Being in the north
I saw them
First changing trees
Of autumn
Ferns
Can ferns be trees
But they were tall
Along the road
Telling me
With any passerby
That the new season
Is arriving
That as
Far as we’re concerned
Is here
C L Couch
Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash
a liturgy of us
(and smaller things)
exhale
think of something
of the spirit
now
what would that be
the green outside
perhaps
the blue that sponsors
all the green
the gold
the kind we cannot see
that might be
illumination
well-defined
but then
how well others know
there are other
senses
to be saved
and that save us
from
time to time
what do we hear
what do we
smell
and taste
and what are we touching
now
well
flat surfaces of gray
that smell
and (thankfully) taste
of nothing
though
there is
a tapping
we might hear
as above our chamber door
should there be a raven
perching like
the poet’s
trickster
maybe we smell the coffee
that we haven’t made
or the shower
we have yet
to take
(we break for both)
and now
we are back
with
coffee
to taste
water having touched us
and is this
the investment
of the spirit
that made everything
in six
days
as eras
though let’s not forget
there’s a seventh day for
rest
and maybe there’s mélange
a compromise
most days
in which we rise
from tries
at rest
at least
and then invest ourselves
in small things
call them readiness
and chores
and so we live
you know
as best we may
enormous things
to take
smally
and so ingest
as best we may
the cosmos
in our coffee
heaven
for Earth
as best we may
c l couch
photo by Florian Hahn on Unsplash
the way of all (smart, laughing, faithful) flesh
consequentially
anger
worry
fear
fear
worry
anger
they amass
and through which
we fight
each other
wisdom is not on
that list
or smarts
or joy
strategy might be applied
in fighting
but there might be something wild
like laughter
first
to apply
maybe
laughing
the kind you know
that's
with each other
laughing
we might have a chance
to diffuse
remember what we like
and for which
we hope
maybe we’ll come back
to a phantom table
(I doubt with
most folk
there’s a real table
though maybe in
more formal occasions
or ‘round
the kitchen table
or card table
of the home
and maybe we were talking
there)
maybe we’ll talk some
more
having risked some humor that
turns out
to be shared
then anger
or fear
the starting points
might mean the end
as well
with
wildest of all
the faith we might have in each other
restored
maybe the end
yet
without doubt
the new beginning
c l couch
photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Study the War
The wars go on
And I have studied wars
Lazy
Of the past
And so far past
Not
To affect my idle service
Much
(1-A did not prevail)
Or really
Much
If anything
Of a life post-war
I do know something
Of big
Heavy blocks
Of strategy
Simplified
Easy
To apprehend
In a chapter
Or an episode
And I can look at
(hear)
The numbers
Then guess how they feel
When a town was there
And now it’s gone
And so do I
Know anything
Of war
I can sing about it
But really
I don’t know
Anything
You know
And could have sung
Before I started
Reading
Ain’t gonna study the war no more
And never starting
C L Couch
Photo by Rafael Ishkhanyan on Unsplash
sorry loneliness won’t do
I haven’t said
the Lord today
though God
is in the everything
of thought
and as we say
our word
and
deed
and in which
we also say
(liturgically)
we live
and not merely live
but move
and have our being
proved
by moving
evidently
breathing’s good
and moving
proofs of life
though more so
elements of life
we get
to use
God having approved
by making
by investing spirit
inside cells
and going outward
toward the entire animal
whose skin
and muscle
we might note
admire
and use
to build ourselves a world
of us
and flora for survival
after fauna
an Earth of godly things
an Earth approved
at least for
six days
inside the hours of
the seventh day
in our image
so we work
expending energy
to make
if co-create
while curse
and flaws
get in the way
and nothing lasts
it seems
but prophecy
and that must be
interpreted
while the bias of each age
gets in the way
if biased toward
gravity
if gravity also an example
and indicator
of our lean
toward love
forces of attraction
of
literal energy
for investing
and for building
not a building
more so
an age
for discovery
of people
and keeping us together
for a legacy
so that the Earth might last
according to the order
of creation
as our
response
to the desire
and otherwise the loneliness
of everyone
in
everything
c l couch
photo by Daniel Angele on Unsplash
“Talented Street Musician in Lisbon”
(though with apologies I could call this A Study in Loneliness or A Study in Parallels)
God Love You like a Lizard
God love you like
A lizard
You know the
Small
The salamander kind
Green or red or brown
But made
Just right for all impulses so
To thrive
To move with halting grace
Through life
To dine upon whatever
Then to sleep among
Warm rocks and sheltering leaves
When its world
Is all right
Around it
Yes
Love and the
Lord
Like the eagle
Too
With expansive and majestic
Wings
And the beak that promises
To tear many things
Asunder
(yes
my dear
like lizard's flesh)
But don’t forget the lizard
(in its primacy)
With all its wonder
Small
Green
Or red or brown
Unassuming
Fit
With nature
And the cosmos
In its
Tiny
Tiny
Role
Inside creation
And via its (tiny) role
Above
C L Couch
the song somewhere outside
it’s not as if
it’s the city
tall and dark with
tall-building shadow
and all that
but there is a bird
that sounds real
brave
somehow
to be singing
over the risk of traffic
and I wonder
what it challenges
in song
perhaps to say there’s hopefulness
in town today
and I will represent that
for you
while I may
c l couch
photo by Evaldas Grižas on Unsplash
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