clcouch123

(x = space)

x

x

Reading Romance, Gothica (two poems)

x

x

Reading Romance

x

Standing there,

Waiting for approval,

The ingenue wonders

If she should

Enter the room

x

Strangers, unaware,

Are dancing to a

Waltz she’s known

Since childhood

Always listening

From the stairs,

A risky place for

Children, though with

Darkness behind

And light pouring from

The party floor,

Sneaking a look at

Parties was

Irresistible

x

I’m sure you understand

x

Now she’s here,

Inside the first

Arc, grown up

Into her story:

Does someone wait

Inside?  Should

She remain inside

The question mark

Or take another step

Step toward

Confirmation,

The start of

Act 5, then

Resolution?

x

Questions demand

Answers; they

Crawl along the

Bannister; she’ll

Take the step

So we might breathe

Into the

Final chapters

x

x

Gothica

x

Tarn,

A Gothic word

For swamp

(try moor

in the British Isles)

x

I look up through

The window

At black branches

Fronting a sky of unformed

Cloud, tunneling

Everything to gray

x

November’s tilting;

We head

Toward winter’s reign,

Cold and gloomy

All our storytelling

x

There might be a

Ghost—there certainly

Will be ghosts

Inhabiting one place,

One will or another

x

The house that

Has a crack in it,

Ready to descend

With all the

Failing generations

(I think you know

the one I mean)

x

But there’s

A house of every heart,

A sprit calling

At the door or, when

Unattended,

Wailing like a banshee

Uncommissioned

x

Everything will

Open and then close up

At the last

x

A deserted house—the

Tarn shall have it

(the swamp, the moor)

From which may

Emerge new

Heroes to try

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Tim Rebkavets on Unsplash

Eltz Castle, Wierschem, Germany

We woke up at 3am so we could drive to Germany. We arrived just in time for sunrise and that’s how this shot came to live. The reflection was made with the reflection of the screen of my phone.

x