clcouch123

Notebook Poems (while downstairs)

with Psalms 34 and 35

Three O’Clock or Thereabout

train sounds out back

from the first floor

bells

deep, uneven thrumming

circles of wheels

train sirens cry and split the local sky

nostalgically, we might still call that

a whistle

after time, train finishes with us

our cars may go

ebb and flow returns to town

until Moses-like the tide of trains

halves us again

(haiku)

child at table works

lead pencil scratches paper

timely task now done

Psalm 34

a song of tears

Lord

hear my cry

and when I’m through

hear my chafed whispering

Psalm 35

song with a question

Lord, are you there

it’s not Margaret of the book

it’s simply unwritten me

Machine-Less Listening

I hear a trumpet call

shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits

(two bits a quarter from

pieces of eight)

Gabriel’s apprentice practices

for the final fanfare

at the end of school in June

Still-Listening

at table round I write

who knew Arthur should meet here

liege folk

talking of charity

T. H. White’s “Might for Right”

until Mordred and Lancelot

ruin everything