brown


ides of December
(3 poems)


north time
(5:42 a.m.)

still so dark
still
so dark
remembering that it’s blue
is
all

practicing memory of daytime as
it’s
taken away

creeps back with the solstice
yet
we believe it is brief time
with

victory enough
in
enduring days
again

again like these
to the north
       to
       the far south


prayer while frankly things are bad
(though regardless could be daily)

God
please
forgive me
help me
in
your timing
I know
though endurance with some endings
along the way
would
really serve
you know
and
of course
you do

you love
you know
you help

and if invisible while suffering
is real
and so there seems a differences
help me in this
to undeceive my senses
to
that the paradox of evidence unseen
and even
life by death
is
understood

and with embraces
here
nonetheless looking elsewhere
is it
forward or more directions
fully everywhere
at last


the past few days at Brown and in Sydney
(and the other places)

to have lost someone through murder
to have lost a child
a lover
or a friend

or to know there is an absence
a gap in what we knew
with health
was
a totality of presence

school of learners

place where faithful gather

any place that should
be easy to walk
through
where normal then became
punishing
insane

so much innocence
and
cowardice
not perfection in the victims
maybe worse for being any
one of
us

walking
breathing
now the smallest valley
sliced
in smooth land
where we had been walking even
if
absently yet
side by side

now only gone
and
in way that was horror and
now
how must we remaining
get on

because we must
we’re called
to
and we must call ourselves

and yet
to face all there is to face
to look within
then
at the world
in
what must be a teary way and then
once scoured
from
the empty place


c l couch


       At about 4:20 p.m. on a cold Rhode Island Saturday, a message from Brown University flashed up on cellphones all over campus — everyone should run or take cover from an active shooter.
       Hours later, horror erupted again, on the other side of the globe, as two gunmen sprayed bullets into a Hanukkah celebration on iconic Bondi Beach in Sydney.
       At Brown, two students were killed and nine others were injured. At least 15 people died at Bondi Beach, and more than three dozen remain in the hospital.
       . . .
(CNN)


photo by Nikola Johnny Mirkovic on Unsplash

southern exposure

now it’s Tuesday
out back
the red looks brown
near-
winter brown
already
though the red out front
more fiery
by sunlight pouring through
the backs and
fronts of leaves
so
maybe it’s a matter
only of shadows
only
of daytime hours
and if the light could shine out back
there would
be fire art
out there
as well

c l couch

photo by Klim Musalimov on Unsplash

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