tenebrous
the devil wins
today
having turned the human forces
in the world
toward
death
humiliation of what’s good
even perfect
that traditions
say
came to save us from
ongoing
serpent
temptation
the twisting of what has been made
so good
bad
grotesque
the evil these point
toward has
won
without awareness
then
of three-day’s waiting time
the good is gone
or
must hide
surrender to new nothingness
of faith
and hope
and
love
c l couch
for Good (ironic) Friday
photo by Aleksei Agafonov on Unsplash
Quality of Day
We have the day
Is all
It seems
And it can be good
Or bad
Or
Like as not
Indifferent
But
If a day
It is a day that God has
Given
And toward gratitude
Behooving
Except on evil days
We think
When
Gratitude is due
But God must have understanding
For even the virtuous
To rail
Then after
Maybe during
All
The cries
When thinking to leave or
To have left
And if left
To be a delight
Upon
Returning
Maybe a prodigal
Maybe a simpler turning
To
Have come back
Then still
To have the day and in
One way or another
Have
Share
Maybe share joy
And
Thus
If in a small contributing way
The next
C L Couch
Photo by Paul Csogi on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Night Is Gracious
x
I can’t think of what
I deserve
Because I deserve nothing
Too well I understand
(with Protestants)
The wages of sin,
Not
Because I’m criminal but
Because I’m sinful,
Maybe in the way
Of all who’ve sinned and so
Deserve extinction
x
But sinful state and actions
Might be
A prelude unto grace—and so
Some say there must
Be evil on the way,
And I wonder
x
They don’t really go by halves,
And shadows are not evil
Evil isn’t natural
Though insistent
And when we think
The evil life is
Shadow life—they don’t combine,
Not really
Decide what you will
x
Let evil sublimate for now
But shadows can delight
At night
Or teaching about night
In day
x
In daylight we’ll have Parousia,
I suppose
Thought at night perhaps
We’ll celebrate,
Then rest
The rest we should have had
In Eden,
Now a rest
For all to merge
To bathe of goodness,
Leaving all distinct
Forever
x
Each one a player and a part
(not the player without
an upstart part,
as Jaques laments
an irony of stasis)
In everything revealed
By light, by shade
All shades of existence
x
Under the sun
(evil abrogated)
While always under stars
Belonging to night,
Where we also
Always
All belong
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center, West Allis, United States
Taken from the Sky Lift at the WI State Fair, August 2017
x
Victimhood
(a reverie, a study)
Evil is too easy
Is it really?
Maybe on the inside
A quick turn, then stay
In that direction
Me, first
You don’t exist
Everything is fodder
For possession
And control
The very stuff of the universe
Should be mine
And then it’s gone
I have nothing
There’s a lesson in legacy
The tyrant is forgotten
Except for notes that tell the truth
And finally
The evil ones are burned
Like autumn leaves in the backyard
(how it used to be)
Effigy and memory
And was this easy?
Yes, and lazy, too
Everything subverted to
A contract with the luck of the devil
A genie who grants wishes and
Scratch-like
Always laughs the last
Because the house of hell always wins
Once entered by
The gullible who think
That profit is a plot
Hard work is another matter for
Good people
The suckers, so I always thought
The despot
And now I am ash
Blown off the foot in the tread
Of someone righteous
Whose agencies are angels
A surrogacy of judgment
My victims
Lazarus
Living in a better house, the house of God forever
While I diminish
To a speck
And then am nothing
No matter left
Nothing
C L Couch
Ramesseum in Egypt
Psalm 17
a difficult song about mourning
Lord, how do we mourn
in a free land? How do
we allow atrocity and
still have the freedom
to choose? We do not
cry in empty space: but
our crying would be worse
in a revenge-wrought iron
land, where security
would be the only aim
and no one would have
open air to breathe
or drop tears for the
dead and for the living.
We must choose to
choose. Not to allow
evil or to destroy
democracy. Mourning
and breathing while we
arm, yes, and await
evil’s annihilate implosion.
For now we choose, in
a free place, to bear
the weight of death—in
nations wounded and in
the raw-split parts
of the human heart.
clcouch123 
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