for seasoning 2 poems for spicing
by c l couch



there was the ambulance across the street

watch over my neighbor now
who has been taken
blinking
somewhere else
and
must be to greater care

and
I could wish we knew each other now
from before
rather than indifference
irritated
through the ceiling and the walls



commencementation

rejoice
O young
in thy youth

and maybe

I don’t cite but leave
the song
the verse about the law of liberty

to consider 
singing
standing
before owning

from what imprisons all
that
could turn
begin
the change

toward freedom as I’m wondering
through sacrifice
and
service

the youth could know
our world
your
inheritance and judge us
yet
expend the greater energy
fixing
up the Earth our habitat

for walls of wood
or
stone and planning rooms whose metal
rusts
and better yet
I have to say
the morals that sustain
us
yes
those
and maybe you’ll stop reading if
you got this far

but love must
say
and recommend
the way for
you
the last of us by which to move

to have our being
and live



(referencing an anthem that cites James; the book of actions of the Apostles)




photo by Nick Nice on Unsplash