Haskell Library
across fair-access borders
‘til government’s ban
c l couch
Built intentionally on the border between Derby Line, Vermont, and Stanstead, Quebec, this Victorian landmark stands as a monument to friendship between the United States and Canada. This library is a place where families, neighbors, and students have come together for generations to learn, read, and share a civic life rooted in trust, curiosity, and peace.
That legacy ended this week.
EveryLibrary
I had read a while before about this phenomenon, a community library that traversed borders between the nations. Now the Canadians have been told they may not use the library on the USA side.
And I suppose haiku aren’t for politicking.
photo by Shunya Koide on Unsplash
(and in the back, a person in attendance in the center)
Revenant
(Advent or anytime)
This is my country now
We brutalize the families
At the border
And the young who attack them
We can remember what
This did to us in Viet Nam
If we want to
The enemy had wrecked the families
First, and then we had
To finish its work
It was strategy
What is this?
What child is this?
For every war we cause with someone
Small,
We make it harder for the Christ child
Or any child
Any family
To come here
C L Couch
Reuters
This photograph by @Reuters shows the United States of America firing tear gas at women and children.
Near-Dead Reckoning
If I had children
To rear (that used to be the proper
Word), I’ve little doubt
I’d treasure some time apart, now
And then
There’s a story of the mother of my
Namesake
She was going to walk
Around the hundred-acre wood
Her son asked to go
And she said no
But when I return
Welcome me
As if I had been gone far
Away for a long time
Nowadays what guilt the mom or dad
Must feel to know
That children are taken from their
Parents with no returning
Promised
The parents now are criminals, they’ll say
Trying to enter by
Liberty’s calling
The children are caged, too
Everyone is guilty, by the way
Not one of us gets off
Unless we’re trying
God will accept a prayer
To bring entire families
Along with sanity
To what has been happening
My father’s people were
Here to tie
Up the ships of all the rest
My mother’s people, there’s a problem
Only a few generations here
So I’ll
Have to take my chances
Warming up to say
That without family
Without the value placed
Up on the shelf in pride of place
That what have we of home
A nation of all promises
Is dust collecting
In an empty place
I don’t have all the answers
I don’t know all the rest
But I think impracticality also
Becomes illicit
When we break the bond
That promises compound reckoning
The nuclei destroyed
Hostility left to orbit like
Errant electrons
Preachy
And sing-songy
Yes, I know
But there it is, I’ll ‘fess up,
And if you’ve come this far
We can go farther
C L Couch
http://www.expatsinvallarta.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Nogales-Tuscon-sign (/jpg)
Border Talk
I don’t know what to say about
A family torn apart
I never had that feeling
Once I thought I’d lost part of my family in
A famous fire
I was hundreds of miles away
I cried for a day to find
It wasn’t true
C L Couch
http://keranews.org/post/view-border-mcallen-locals-debate-child-immigration-crisis
H is for History
History is not experience
But a record of what happened
My father liked to tell stories
Of growing up along Puget
Sound, which he swam across
Part of with regularity
Well, it seems that a border
Dispute arose between folks
In Seattle (probably Olympia,
State capital and southerly
Sound-located) and those in
Vancouver and of all the parts
On both sides—
A conflict of two nations, as
It were, Canada and the USA
One day the problem was
Resolved in a game of baseball
The border was settled over
Nine-innings’ play
I don’t recall who won; maybe
I was never told—that’s not
The point—the day was saved
Not with guns but by a game,
Sporting in every way
My father’s storytelling was
History—and is—a recording
Of the time and what transpired
My telling this to you becomes
A history as well
How about making a history
For yours
clcouch123 
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