going my way
I might
have confessed already
I used to do my homework
by
Monday Night Football
which ran longer
than
primetime typically allowed
I might
have
paper
pencil
later pen
typewriter
while
on my own
I worked through ersatz responses
to
assignments that I’m sure would have
gone better had I
allowed the proper
situation
such as
a cell in a scriptorium
yet here
I am
years later
with tinnitus
and so
doing the same
as
when Cosell told me
that they won a game
they did
not
deserve to win
which and whom
my brother
Rick
liked
to cite and recite
c l couch
photo by Klim Musalimov at Unsplash
Where the Train Track Ends
(in spirit for Shel Silverstein)
Train tracks seem
Not
To end
And I suppose
Sidewalks
Don’t
Have to end as well
Though it
Seems
They end more often
Or at least we get
To see
Or maybe trip over
If we don’t
(or
someone says
to us
hey
it’s ending)
But train tracks end
Unless in a roundhouse
In a city
Where they end
But the trains are turned around
To go another way
Or the same
Way
They came
But
Underneath our trees
At Christmastime
(or for another reason
and
you know
there could be)
The tracks don’t end
Unless
There’s a reason
Meaning something’s broken
That
We need to fix
And we fix it
And our train goes on
Around
And for variety
Perhaps
We may
If we can
(if the train came with this)
Sound a whistle
Or
In the old
Days
Make some smoke
So I should confess
Perhaps
Our sidewalks were at least
A block away
From our cul-de-sac-ed
And sidewalk-less
Neighborhood
But I had
Train tracks in the basement
And then
To be precise
(and personal)
There was a flood
Down
There
Which was
An end
Though not
The end
Of
Train tracks
C L Couch
Photo by Todd Trapani on Unsplash
suburban childhood
Saturday morning
cereal
doughnuts
cartoons on TV
trying to forget there might be chores
(we had
done a week of school
after all)
Sunday would be church
and then who knows
the rest of homework
fretting
over Monday
c l couch
photo by Pawel Kadysz on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Dreaming the Mushroom Cloud
x
I suppose it’s because
I knew the movie
Would appear today
And got me thinking
Stirring something
Too
As a surprise
x
I dreamed I saw the cloud
The mushroom cloud
Rising above the horizon
Of the tress
Near the place where I was standing
And I knew
Inescapably
The effects would be upon us
x
I could be atomized
The irony of the name for the bomb
As a result
(in addition to the cause)
Or I could be set
In winter
The awful winter without food
Or safety
And were the people inside
In the building near me
(in the dream)
Ready for a new companionship
Survival from the blast
And all the blasts
And then I woke
x
It’s been a while
Since I had a dream like that
I don’t think
Since childhood
When I looked up on summer days
To wonder if a silver missile might
Arc out of the blue
And toward the ground
x
No matter what the season
Counting
It was the famous cold time
For a war
x
C L Couch
x
x
(I think it’s today that the film Oppenheimer premieres)
x
Photo by Alen Smola on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Heart
x
I breathe a little
Saturday morning
Last moments
Before noon
When I would be called upon
For chores
Last free moments
Watching another show
As an excuse
Pretending its significance
x
Did I have a heart defect
Back then
We’ll never know
Or was I put to work
Too soon
Or was it the lesson that
Work is bad
And I should only be glad
When it’s done
x
Whichever way
I was a child who
Wanted to
Escape
And on rainy days
I sat in a chair next to a lamp
In the room saved for
Official company
And rather than
All that
I took the quiet
And went into books
With
Stories that saved
x
The mind
The heart
Everything that mattered
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Treat
x
One time
And a few more times
There were
Doughnuts
By Dolly Madison
Advertised during It’s the
Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
And other specials
x
There were eyeholes
We could barely see through
Well enough
But there were parents
And we did all right
And sometimes in other houses
There were scenes of
Evening parties we could see
(if not that well)
x
And there are photographs
Of a me I do not know
Because
I was on the inside
Trying to look through
And my imagination
Took me other places
Through the night
And the cold air
As I ran
To the next house
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
(x = space)
x
x
Red Scare
x
I was born when
It peaked,
When McCarthy
Was deflated
But it was a cold war,
And we weren’t supposed to
Trust the Soviets
Whoever they were
I didn’t know and
Could only generally
Think about Russians
x
But there was the language room
At Pitt
And people from so many parts
Living in the city
And the region
And on TV scenes and shows
With comedy and Russians
x
Some of these
Lampooning, no doubt
Some of it relief
As if to say
The Soviets are people, too
And we are people, too
x
There were Soyuz model kits
And joined experiments in space
And there was Peter and the Wolf
At the young people’s symphony
And The Nutcracker
At Heinz Hall every winter,
And my sister liked to go
x
Communists?
Who were communists?
They wore red stars
Looked grim
Waited in long lines for everything
There was Eloise in Moscow
We looked for the funny KGB character
Appearing somewhere on each page
x
There were missiles all over
Here and there
I didn’t see any,
Though there were sonic booms above
From military aircraft
x
Blue and silver in the sky
And black and white on TV
How scared should I be?
Sometimes I was pretty scared
x
C L Couch
x
x
x
(x = space)
x
x
Chocolate Milk
x
I used to like
To mix in Nestle’s Quik
Sold by a rabbit
x
It was powder then,
And I was not good
With the result
x
Little globs of wet
Powder on the surface
Of the milk
x
But I liked the process,
Spinning the Quik around
Making a maelstrom
In the center of it all
x
I don’t know if
I had been in the southern world
Would I have stirred it
The other way
x
I’m drinking coffee
From a glass just now
(it’s customized),
And everything is smoother
x
I’m grown up
x
But the stirring
Just this morning
Reminded me of
Turning galaxies
In my child’s glass
Of milk and Nestle’s Quik
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Arnaud Mariat on Unsplash
Far away Andromeda galaxy, or M31, in deep space.
x
Junior Classic, Illustrated
I saw an image of a dhow
First time in a comic book when
I was young
Good place to find it—
Looks and words of far-off places
Among them those that don’t exist
For that’s what
Comic bookx are for
And for the youth
In any age
A small, Egyptian ship
To carry color, set a story
Spark something in the head
And all longing internal parts that
Want the story
To be real
Then, I read slowly
I read slowly now
And for my sins became a teacher
Of all kinds of text
But the text that draws me in
Is
Once this happened
C L Couch
Dhow in the Indian Ocean near Zanzibar
Muhammad Mahdi Karim – Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13092508
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