What Kind of Country
The Constitution
A grand response to the ancient notion
Of democracy
Preamble
Principles
And rationale
And then how to operate a nation
Amendments
Laws to address exigent
Inequalities
And is all this worth defending
It’s worth repeating and
Defending
We could say
Defending to the last
We could say
Defending for the first
If the first is a child
If the first is First Family
Is the first was a slave
If the first
Lives and by living
Is mistreated
That’s the first
She is the first
And all
Who by birth and by the way
Are here
Only one of us was here
To begin with
The rest of us have
Come in waves
With each wave unwelcome
Scaring
The preceding wave as
A single ocean
Never acts
C L Couch
photo by Sean Oulashin on Unsplash
b-day GW
today is G’s birthday
and what must he think
he might not mind so much
except he saw the war
led it
watched the soldiers die
watched them freeze
at Valley Forge
and then
perhaps with barely thawed enthusiasm
row
then march on Trenton
for the win
and he knew
enough
to resist majesty
mot likely would not care
for
Apotheosis
though he likely would appreciate
the talent
in the
art
and maybe dallying with God
being
Episcopalian
except one Sunday in Carlisle
when it seemed meet
to go
Presbyterian
but letting God be God
should a monarch be appropriate
but
no one
as one
under God
on Earth
and in deciding earthly matters
leave all people
to decide
except for the flawed
frankly awful quantities
to make
of women and
of slaves
since to have a nation we must
all
be or become democratized
happy day
George
and maybe happy nation
you secured
and must make up
and grow
negotiate a peace inside
and
then model
as the French have tried and then
(as
well)
to be this kind of
presence
in the world
c l couch
photo by Laura Nyhuis on Unsplash
Mount Rushmore, Mount Rushmore UT, SD, USA
(never finished as a monument)
a day too that’s good for thinking about tart, red, sweet cherry pie
(sorry, had to say this)
(x = space)
x
x
Cry Caesar
(15 March)
x
I could talk of Caesar
It’s his ides
He died
He was killed
It was awful
Stabbed by two dozen knives
Of senators conspiring
Some of whom were killed
Themselves
After trying to escape
Or trying to stage a coup d’etat
Ending the republic
Staging instead
The empire
That would live as long
As the republic
Then fall into philosophies
And artifacts
x
Two millennia and some
We still talk about it
Assigned the play
We might be taking sides
Empire
Or dictator
Sadness all around
Without good sides
x
There is a better way
That republic idea
Seeded in democracy
That might not be so bad
For nurturing
And flourishing
Say, starting on the sixteenth
x
C L Couch
x
x
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91281949
x
Lent 32
Is there a mood for Lent?
We could light a candle
Or set a dancing flame inside
A lamp
We could cross ourselves into
A meditative frame,
A shape that’s somehow both
Relaxing and attentive
(from yoga, we might learn options)
We can clean our minds
Dust out the mental bunnies
That distract with
Rapid-fire hiding
Leave the nightmare-horses go
That otherwise fence our thoughts
And predilections
A prophet might say
Make straight
The roadway to the Lord
Monarchs might proclaim
A day for silence and in
Contemplation find peace within
Oneself and in the realm
But kingly days are done
(we have the prophet’s words)
Except for self-styling
Which days should be numbered, too
Leaving us with our unbloodlined
Selves,
Choice and determination
Know thyself, someone says
(sooner or later in nostalgic king’s English)
It’s a democracy of souls
To find direction
We are free
As we are
To seek out something
That we need
In and for each season
That we have
C L Couch
Michelle Kinsey Bruns – Mood LightingUploaded by Fæ, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23015762
Meals are by candelight on Great Gull Island. The candleholders have been around the block a few times.
Two Children Die in Border Custody
Two children from another country
Died because they were in the USA
They didn’t break in; there was no crime
They were busy being children
This happened famously
How many are dying quietly
Security is one thing
Incompetent security another
Are the agents uncaring in their job
I do not know
But it’s the policymakers, our surrogates
And advocates, who show less
Wisdom based on no compassion
If it were your child
But it’s not
But if it were
But it would never be
Really, you never think the broad sweep
Of a killing blade might not reach
You or yours
Such randomness in civil violence
Such lack of specific concern
Will the impersonal never touch the personal
Are you not affected
Aren’t we all
If not for fear of something awful
Let’s turn to the cause of something really good
We say we like life
Let’s like it, then
Cherish it, protect it
Let it go when it’s time
In the ordinariness of the divine
Let’s not make tragedy
We say we like free will
Be that democracy
That has made tyrants weep
Despots weak
Bullies to give up the fight
Or lose any place work having
I’ve heard us say that we like children
That we care for health, safety
Education
Family
I sound like a poster, now
How about this one, I Want You
Or We Can Do It
C L Couch
https://abc7chicago.com/2nd-guatemalan-child-dies-in-us-custody;-medical-checks-ordered/4968761/
Guatemalan boy, 8, dies in US custody on Christmas Eve – CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/25/us/guatemalan-boy-dies-in-us-custody/index.html 3 days ago … … Guatemalan boy has died in the custody of US Customs and Border … second Guatemalan child to die in the agency’s custody this month.
‘A Breaking Point’: Second Child’s Death Prompts New Procedures for …
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/us/felipe-alonzo-gomez-customs-border-patrol.html 2 days ago … “Moving forward, all children will receive a more thorough hands-on …. Jakelin Caal Maquin, a 7-year-old girl, died in Border Patrol custody …
note
The agencies that can help most personally and astutely will lose their funding in the current shutdown.
(image)
A “Rosie” working on the A-31 Vengeance bomber in Nashville, Tennessee (1943)
Alfred T. Palmer – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID fsac.1a35371.
(from a photo-prompt of cows; photo by Annie Spratt)
Meanings
(nebby is evidently a Pittsburgh expression,
a compressing of neighborly and nosey)
definition of a cow: trying to be a horse
of a dog: doesn’t understand the diplomacy of cats
of a cat: one who perceives dogs as pointless
definition of a child: not a miniature adult
of a parent: nervous the length of child-life
a soldier: serving with all there is
definition of democracy: each one matters
of an earth: that without which we do not live
of God: maker; providentially nebby
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