fair children
(because I started Tuesday)

Mundy
like Grundy
and
that sad
poem

imposed on children
for
the learning of the days of the week

like the A text in the primer
with
the other letters
that
trends toward grim
and imposing

daunting
as it is doctrinal

and then what comes to mind
that seven-stages
speech
by Jaques in the play
that
is ironic
and I think so bitter

like
the speech on Yorick without
the humor
however darkly
to
receive

how often to be cynical
by art

how often
to be turned toward empty
cubicles of thinking
of
resistance unapplied toward
better thought
even
of joy
to be alive if
yes
I know it’s hard
from time to time
and
some of us
it seems
by style

so Monday’s child
fair of
face
and is there beauty on the Earth
and inside

and where is fair
but as we think and feel
and act

which all seems obvious
I know
like
great
truths we all have heard
and maybe
can recite
yet get our governments with
the governing
the
governed
in
each one by each one
then corporate
actual
to apply
and so give fairness of the Earth
all
children of the Earth
a chance

c l couch


(New England Primer, As You Like It, Hamlet)

photo by Yannis H on Unsplash