Quiet
I wake up and no one’s
There
The noises of the house remain
My sister’s probably in her office
On a conference call
My brother-in-law in the master
Bedroom getting ready
What a brief time it takes
To get used to company
It all feels strangely empty
The house without its people
I have entered from another place
Where loneliness is normal
But I have changed
In such a short time
I’ve picked up sibling silence
And placed it in my pocket
C L Couch
Photo by JAYAKODY ANTHANAS on Unsplash
Frank Families
(haiku)
They tried daylight ways
We wouldn’t let them go; we
Made them hide ’til found
C L Couch
image in the public domain
news story, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/anne-frank-s-family-tried-escape-u-s-hit-immigration-n889251
Revenant
(Advent or anytime)
This is my country now
We brutalize the families
At the border
And the young who attack them
We can remember what
This did to us in Viet Nam
If we want to
The enemy had wrecked the families
First, and then we had
To finish its work
It was strategy
What is this?
What child is this?
For every war we cause with someone
Small,
We make it harder for the Christ child
Or any child
Any family
To come here
C L Couch
Reuters
This photograph by @Reuters shows the United States of America firing tear gas at women and children.
Near-Dead Reckoning
If I had children
To rear (that used to be the proper
Word), I’ve little doubt
I’d treasure some time apart, now
And then
There’s a story of the mother of my
Namesake
She was going to walk
Around the hundred-acre wood
Her son asked to go
And she said no
But when I return
Welcome me
As if I had been gone far
Away for a long time
Nowadays what guilt the mom or dad
Must feel to know
That children are taken from their
Parents with no returning
Promised
The parents now are criminals, they’ll say
Trying to enter by
Liberty’s calling
The children are caged, too
Everyone is guilty, by the way
Not one of us gets off
Unless we’re trying
God will accept a prayer
To bring entire families
Along with sanity
To what has been happening
My father’s people were
Here to tie
Up the ships of all the rest
My mother’s people, there’s a problem
Only a few generations here
So I’ll
Have to take my chances
Warming up to say
That without family
Without the value placed
Up on the shelf in pride of place
That what have we of home
A nation of all promises
Is dust collecting
In an empty place
I don’t have all the answers
I don’t know all the rest
But I think impracticality also
Becomes illicit
When we break the bond
That promises compound reckoning
The nuclei destroyed
Hostility left to orbit like
Errant electrons
Preachy
And sing-songy
Yes, I know
But there it is, I’ll ‘fess up,
And if you’ve come this far
We can go farther
C L Couch
http://www.expatsinvallarta.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Nogales-Tuscon-sign (/jpg)
Border Talk
I don’t know what to say about
A family torn apart
I never had that feeling
Once I thought I’d lost part of my family in
A famous fire
I was hundreds of miles away
I cried for a day to find
It wasn’t true
C L Couch
http://keranews.org/post/view-border-mcallen-locals-debate-child-immigration-crisis
Portland Oregon
I have family there I
Think I lost four more
C L Couch
Four homeless people die of exposure in Portland in first 10 days of 2017
For All Souls
(2 November)
Rosemary for remembrance
But it will be in Spain and Mexico
USA and other places, as
Candy shaped into skulls,
Bright-color picnics set out at night
With our dead—and many
Kindred flames of candlelight
Yesterday the living church
Today the predeceased who will
Stay a little closer
Families gather ‘round the stones
De abuelos, tíos, quizás los niños
All whose loss is lessened for a
Time as an altogether family
For the feast
C L Couch
Our Many Faces
Aleppo, yes, I know
Sounds like a sixth
Marx brother from
Post-Vaudevillian
Capers
But children die there
From what war takes
Which is all right
Since we don’t value
Children, anyway:
If we did, we’d see
They were not shot
And killed, they never
Suffered in want
Of food or a good
School
We’d value them like
Prizes won in the
Most precious bingo
Game or ski-ball
We’d sit with them,
We’d watch them eat,
See that they are
Clean inside and out
And have temerity
To ask for help when
Needed
We’d celebrate the
Family that we are
Part of, even if we’re
Not their parents
Because in the most
Worldly way we are
We’d say, it’s for the
Children; and we’d
Mean it
We’d change
Everything to have
Them safe and well
And jiggly playful at
Home
We’d do the world
Right this time
C L Couch
Easter Uprising
2016
Some chose to mark
Easter day with willful
Murder
Family picnics in
Lahore Pakistan
Christians targeted
Though tell me there
Were no guests of
Islam other faith or
None
Day of faith and
Homely celebration
We who were not
There can nonetheless
Relate
Imagine those we
Love even those we
Forbear by mere
Relation
Scattered rent apart
Undone
Reunions friendly or
Indifferent never
Again
The soul the spire
Tying through a
Family broken taken
Away
Now the future holy
Day focuses alone to
Count those of us
Alive
clcouch123 
Recent Comments