lyrics on a day that’s cold and cold at least in the MidAtlantic
Suburban Wait
Winter light’s
Too bright
For cleaning deeply
Finally
Dispiriting
The leaning light
Shows everything we’ll never get
To or
Even want
To get around to
Those dust-bunnies shall
Keep their warrens
After all
While we wait
For the easy lighting
To clean by
Which
Will happen
You know
Spring
Roll
Roll in the hay
Roll out the barrel
Mister
Yankovic
Roll on home
Now
There might be rolls
For dinner
Rolled oats
Though I don’t know what
These are
Roll the dice
Roll to win
Field Work
God
You love us
Anyway
Which is remarkable
Not inexcusably
But
Unconditionally
Which splices doctrine
Maybe
But you can handle that
And so
Should we
The field of the Lord is vast
There are no mines
No
Not ever
Only living things
Mythic plants
That spring back as we pass over
Them
So that everyone may have
The chance
To pilgrim
Toward
What’s next
Possessive Tense
The dogs of God
The cats
The bunnies
Too
The aardvarks
And the platypus too silly
Some
Might think
The insects
Too
There might be reasons
For mosquitoes
What is tall
What is
Low
What is brief
What has long life
On Earth
The Earth is the Lord’s
Too
A place on which to keep
The complex
Living things
And
Well
Among these
Us
Use Words
(as you are able)
I love you
Honestly
I know
(since I’m in me)
You love me
I think I know
Not quite as
Whose woods are these
I know
(not with the same divine
assurance
frankly)
So you might have to say
From time to time
Though if you
Always do
(flawed occasions notwithstanding)
Then
Maybe not so much to say
But
Sorry
Still
To say
C L Couch
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” Robert Frost (cited)
Photo by Kevin Cress on Unsplash
Time Kept by the Ox and Lamb
Mary nodded
Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
The ox and lamb kept time
Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
A wonderful
Metered
And who knows
Maybe jazzy moment
As
We’re talking
Myth
And magic
More imagination
Overall
The ox and lamb
They kept
Time
While the drum was played
By a boy
Not a grown-up
For this first
Time
Not by a symphony
If there were a chorus
One of angels
It might have gone
Pianissimo
Then
Mary nodded
She could have tapped her toes
Or snapped her fingers
Though she was
After birth
And if she had been tired
She might have been tired
Then
And it might have been enough
To nod
As well as Joseph
After the efforts with all things
Arranging
Only nodding
Too
And then at midnight
All the animals
Join in
With voices we could hear
As being ours
Which is the legend
So that there’s magic upon magic
Contemporary
Ancient
Added to the textual lore
For fun
Perhaps
And without doubt
For meaning
And so let all created things exist
Parents
Children
Animals
Imagination and
Stories to tell
To sing
Maybe like animals at midnight
In a tappy
Or a jazzy way
Even a little wild
Like the passing of the Spirit
Through
And for
All things
C L Couch
The song “Little Drummer Boy,” first known as “Carol of the Drum,” was written by Katharine Kennicott Davis, appearing in 1941.
Photo by Carlos Coronado on Unsplash
Animals Fair
Sometimes
I think
I’d like to live
In the world of
Mole
Waiting on Toad
Or another of the animal
Fabulae
But then I’d have to become a
Beastie
I suppose
Something small
Like a civet
Still with
Tooth and claw
Or something that imposes
Like a
Heffalump
With girth
And myth
To help
C L Couch
Photo by Jorgen Hendriksen on Unsplash
Toad of Toad Hall drove a shiny red sportscar and wrecked it. He drove several more such cars and wrecked them all. (And faced jail time, kids.)
(x = space)
x
x
I Hope the Dogs and Cats Are Well
x
I heard stories about them
Early in the war
Not so much now
There might be zoos
I remember that detail
In a story by Unamuno
About the end of the world
And the wild animals getting out
But dogs and cats need our help
They always do
We made them that way
Adapted them for use
And took away their other capabilities
How could they stand up to wolves
Or bears or badgers
Wolverines
Or unknown men and women
With machine guns
Who have no familiar smells
Nothing about them
To indicate
Friend
Or family
Or home
Cats and dogs might do all right
With welcome from the stranger
But in battlefields
The anonymities are too severe
And the cruelties
Tend to pile up
Where did they go?
Where are the ones I was protecting?
I do not know anyone
Anything
Anymore
x
C L Couch
x
Photo by troy williams on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Feed the Animals
x
I wish all cats
To be adopted
And dogs
And chinchillas
Guinea pigs
Hamsters
Snakes
(not with hamsters)
And everything
That makes a pet
x
The rest returned safely
To the wild
To wild places kept safe
x
I know we eat animals
And wear parts
Of them
I guess we have to
Though there are other
Sources of protein
And for leather
So that we could live well
Without the slaughter
x
There are industries
That would have to be
Taken care of
First and well
(keeping jobs,
well, transferring
maybe
transform
if not transmogrify)
Before such universal
Change
x
But we can do that
We can do so many things
We can do this
x
We can restore so many
Things
Establish new traditions
Remembering the old
Not in chagrin
But to say
We were that
Now we are this
x
coda
x
We’d have to feed our carnivores
The large and small
The wheel turns
Maybe there are substitutes
We’d have to find out
Very carefully
And thoroughly
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
(x = space)
x
x
2 poems—pray for me, pray for you
x
Life in 3/4 Time
x
I’m sorry, Lord
I spent half my life repressed
The other half aggressive
Now is a time of
Negotiated peace
I’ve tried to give up everything
From each time
Even time
So that now there’s little left
With which to make a new life
Made of acceptable things
For an acceptable time
x
x
Pray for Friends
x
Lord,
Watch over all my friends
Send your angels to protect
Them from all kinds
Of things
x
There is sickness
There are sick pets
There are jobs
And then no jobs
And sometimes jobs
Not worth the having
x
And sometimes things get
Broken, and there is pain
Of all kinds
Sometimes relationships
Are broken and I cannot
Speak with expertise
But eschew all the bitterness
As well
x
They are people, mostly
Some are animals
And I pray that where something
Has been split,
You will fill in with healing
And a promise
x
Though tomorrow only waits
While today is what
We have
So I must pray for now
For them
For you
x
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Tejash Verma on Unsplash
x
I lost some electronics last week; the Verizon person replaced big parts. The new WordPress editor is unwieldy. I’ve had extra headaches and added issues in the building. Sleeping has been harder. I’ve fallen behind and feel sorry for that.
x
x
Yawnism
x
When we’re tired
When we need an extra breath
Impulsive
Expresses boredom,
I suppose
If we could do it on cue
Mainly,
I think it says
It’s time for something new
Getting up or sitting down
Moving
Or less movement
The diaphragm needs to
Push on the lungs
And now;
Waiting would not be prudent
As trying to suppress it shows
Like most activities,
It is a process
Animals, we may believe,
Do it not for show
But smoothly
And in purity,
For real
x
Ingenuous about offense
(or is it ingenious?),
We could follow them
Meaning to signal
Nothing more
(to take away)
Than
Everyone wears out
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Girl with red hat on Unsplash
Cat yawning on blue bed.
x
Fire Out, Please
Australia’s dying
How are the first people there?
The second people are in dire need
Those who survive the danger
Needing something of what
Was brought with them
And then called home
One prison colony is
Now another
No time for blame
This is a time for life
For rescue, healing, then rebuilding
New air is needed
Everywhere except the fire
That, God willing, must be bereft
Of oxygen to die
The irony of living
Losing all the green sources for
The birth of breath
For people
The animals who might reinhabit
Give birth again
A billion
Having been killed so far
C L Couch
Photo by Alfred Kenneally on Unsplash
Australia bushfires: A billion animals will have been killed
MSN News· 23 hours ago
A billion animals will have died in Australia‘s devastating bushfires and those who make it through…
Animal Attraction
(4 October)
He loved animals
And, to hear the stories,
They had love for him
Ask the wolf about
Negotiation with the saint,
Garnering a good life in
Gubbio
Ask the birds who listened
To his sermon when no human
Would attend
Ask the rabbits that scurried near
His feet to have his company
(I’m guessing about the rabbits)
His is a portrait of simplicity
And of pain
To have the wounds of Christ
So specifically
Having unwithheld agony as well
I think he loved the world
His sisters
And his brothers
He sang to creation
Now Earth’s family sings with him
For this, the feast day
C L Couch
Image by Janet Meyer from Pixabay
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