gray

gray time

it’s gray
as if the lightest fog in front
so
light’s ironic
without evidence
but
knowing that it’s time

Earth knows
while
it’s whole around the sun
fractured
since making and
in time
shall have the splinters going through
the core
and
all of us
gray like these days
shall hopefully have left
gone
to
another world that has
tectonically
so far to go

c l couch

photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash

quiet as a

I sit
on an old creaking
and solid bench

and could I be quiet
like that church mouse over there
I neither see
nor hear
but wears gray
with brown
and
needing to clean the dust of Earth
when drops of water I might
find
somewhere there

c l couch

photo by Zoshua Colah on Unsplash
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, NYC, USA

The View You Know

Sun
Out front
Only afternoon out
Back
Both struggle
Not with each other
But
With gray

Black buildings
Black
Branches

Inside
Things are grayed as well
I could be reminded of ethical
Situations

But
It’s not school
I am
Nonplussed
Could use some learning to apply

To like
The gray
Maybe draw gray things
Try not
To think in gray
Until a situation might arise

Appreciate gray shadows
In the day
A gift

Close my eyes
Appreciate the fiery black inside
While I
Nap
Which seems
A gray thing to do

Maybe
I could try
To smell
Gray
To taste
As if from the air
To touch one of gray’s shadows

To listen
To
The words from gray
‘Cause
I could be missing out
On
A gray gospel

C L Couch

Photo by Henry & Co. on Unsplash
“In That Silent Mood” [given image title]

a few lines as if in part above the abbey

a few lines of nature
and of God

looking outside
nothing
grand to see
with no majestic sound

rather
the grandness and the majesty
are in the small networks
of the branches

dark tendrils
once the vessels of green leaves

then shall all be green again
after three months
when green
shall
smally
grandly
majestically
overwhelm impending gray
again

that is nature
and is God
the work
at least
in lines
of
seasons’ prophecy

c l couch

photo by Brussel Banda on Unsplash

Last Gray Day

Last day of gray
Someone
Says whose job it is to say
I guess

So maybe yellow tomorrow
Red
And orange
Burnt-umber crayon
Too

Though gray belongs
In autumn
In spite of its mood
By tone

Interesting
And
Cloudy days
Out back of fall

C L Couch

Photo by Fons Heijnsbroek on Unsplash

End of Gray
(sorry, here be, might be, a rant)

A gray day

Did you notice
Maybe you walked through
The lack
Of sun
Of blue
Well
By unnoticing

Normal enough

After all
We’ll have these back
The sun and
Blue
Won’t we
We also have
Perfected images
Machined and framed
And
Perched
Somewhere

Or we move our digits
Over
Surfaces of phones
Or manipulate
Tablet or
Desktop screens
Or in
Our cars
Or on still
More
Shiny and electric
Screens
(still more)

Actual
Sun
And blue
Will be back
Sure as seasons
Until
We learn to crack the Earth and
Do it
For profit somehow
Or in another madness
Say
Because we can
Which
Like nanites and A-I

Override the fears
We
Did not
Have the time or chance
To be informed
To have
Or
(much less)

Choose

C L Couch

Photo by Liam Hunter on Unsplash
Found deep in the woods with no explanation.
[photographer’s caption, adding a period]

Dawn Patrol

1

The light is up
Gray light of
Normal dawn
It’s pretty much a wash
Just now
Though I think there is a promise
Of more colors
Like crayons
Beneath the single tone
Which I guess is a crayon color
Too
And hip
Gray trends
After all
Though I prefer the brown tones
Then add in some orange
Then the rest

The dawn
It will have these
But also start
With pink
And be a marvel

Sunrise
On Earth
A rival experience
In the Solar System
Because we also rise
With air
And with water
And with fertile ground
Sometimes planted
Sometimes fallow
In relationship
So that life
Might be obviously abundant
While we guess about the others
Out there
Here

2

The gray is lighter
Now
And there is more
The movie’s almost over
And I’d like to think
Maybe I could sleep at last
And
For a while

I don’t know
I guess I could let you know
Though you have troubles
Of your own
Of course
I know

C L Couch

Photo by Matias Luge on Unsplash


ain’t together
(roaming like clouds or cellphone signals, I apologize)

anticipation
like the ketchup
rain
should come
at any moment
through
the unrelenting gray

to the west
and south
severer things have happened
and
I think
we
shall get the dregs
of it
flooding tempests
and tornados

well
it’s windy
now
though I don’t think
shelter-driven
though
of course
I could be wrong
and I’ll
be looking for
a doorframe
after all

and you be safe
unless
you be
stormchasers
then
I don’t what
to say

how about
God speed with you
and make wings
ahead
blow you the other way
when exigent
need be

coda

I’m sorry
we aren’t going through
what you go through
in Ukraine
or in Gaza
or
in parts where the same things
happen
and we don’t hear about
so much

I’m not talking about
bullets
killing or
explosions

the terror
then the thirst
and hunger
after

the infections

and the awful
draining
fear
for families

and I’m not in Philadelphia
where someone had to shoot
at Muslims
having Eid al-Fetr
at the end
of Ramadan

and I’m not everywhere
where white folk
hate the Jews
or anyone who’s not
so white
(I guess I mean
pure
ethnic white
whatever hell that means
as a thought
or an
agenda)
anyone
that is
whom we’re afraid of
as the next
majority
in number or
otherwise in power

well
I merely
started talking
about
weather
and by
implication
climate change

but
maybe
everything’s extreme
anymore

and the peace of moderation
sometimes called
the swing vote
might be desired
more than
ever
or I’ll only speak
for me
from a kind of centered place
that I hope is not
the hurricane’s
but God’s
eye

c l couch


photo by Clay LeConey on Unsplash

with at the start a reference to a TV commercial from the '70s