Steel Brass Plastic Agenda, Never the Last Word
(2 poems)
Steel Brass Plastic Agenda
There was an argument
In Kansas City
And evidently
Lots of guns
At the scene
So who wants to be powerful
Who wants to be famous
First
Who is more superior
By bullets
An argument
Is not enough
Except perhaps
For pretense
I am ready
I have the final volume
With my gun
Keep talking
Keep rising
I’ll have you
With the last word
My own
Explosion
To settle everything
Then come and get me
You should
Know me now
Never the Last Word
This is no last word
But taking a breath
To breathe
Without the news
And all things
That press on me
On us
I can’t do this without you
And don’t want
To
But let’s all take time
To breathe
And we can drink
And talk
Besides
We could sit
At table
In that made-up
Lakeside café
I keep making up
Adding details
For our ease
And for reflection
On reflection
Of the water
And we could leave
Better than before
Join me
In breathing
If you will
In sipping
Also nibbling something
For small pleasure
Great pleasure
In the interacting
Relief in
Trying to be ourselves
A little more
Each time
We meet
You send me something
And I send you things
While the café waits
And other good
Imagined things
In between
The substance of ourselves
And what we choose
In greater and more open
Health
(let’s try)
To share
C L Couch
Photo by Fern M. Lomibao on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
The Real Thing
x
I am not in the war
Except
With my mind and heart
My contributions
Here and there
Not for a winner
But for everything
To cease
While there are citizens
And innocence
To count
x
I can’t imagine an explosion
(over me
and I am done)
Next to me
So that I live
But everything is changed
x
For what
And whom I’ve lost
All basic things
And anything
Refined
x
A world that’s there
Even to know
The risks in temporality
And to persist
Then what I know
Is gone
And I am hurt
My body
And my mind
x
I might get fixed
But something will not mend
Something broken
That the screws
And prayers
Cannot reward
With success
x
Some part of me
Who wonders now
A beggar on the plane
Of dreams
And real hours
When I dance
With hate
And seeming
Justification
x
For it all
To have happened
And it’s happened
So that
There’s an end
Before the end
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Jeff Kingma on Unsplash
x
An Insignificant Response
I think I heard on the local news
That some of us are going
In addition to the national aid
That I hope is on its way
The UN and EU are already there
With the UK and Russia
The numbers keep increasing
The dead and wounded
Hospitals, themselves damaged,
Are working at more-than-full
Capacity
There is broken glass and blood
All over the city
Like a shining sheet, say
Those who are there
Many miles away,
The blast was heard
Followed by a sonic wave that
Literally knocked people
From a standing posture down
It was a mushroom cloud
For a non-nuclear blast
A little prophecy at work
There are protests
In anger at what happened
Drawing police with tear gas
And rubber bullets
I used to think that could only happen
In another nation from people who
Fear their grip on power
But we have followed precedent
In self-styled, hoped-for despotism
So that
Everything that’s helpful is delayed
Well, we’ll get there, too
And I hope we stay there for a while
To help, most of all
Maybe to learn something, too
About our global neighbors
About the sheen of darkened glass
That covers us
Dusting by laying dust
Over our light
An experiment in democracy
For a few centuries, now
That can’t help but be a model
One way or another
Pray, help Lebanon
Let your angels work in Beirut
It is a sectarian
Sometimes the Christian fight the Muslims
Sometimes it goes the other way
Now, it should not matter
And, inshallah, it should not matter
Ever again
C L Couch
By Oren Rozen – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92908578
Tel Aviv City Hall, 5 August
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