Born in out of the USA
Labor Day
Holiday
For sales
Last gasp
Before
We must admit
School has begun
Last
Swim in the community pool
There might be fireworks
Tonight
Last flags out front
For a while
And should there be a last red
White
And blue
Parade
The turning
Of
The cultural
New year
This is my country
And I love it
C L Couch
Photo by Jennifer R. on Unsplash
(x = space)
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my favorite holiday
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my favorite holiday
ever
I heard someone say
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Christmas trees
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or forlorn branches
in a Hallowe’en sky
x
triumphant Easter morning
whether or not
there’s sunlight
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Groundhog Day
for fun
inside shadows
x
I don’t know
x
say
how about today
this day
for a holiday
x
for a holiday
a holy day
x
c l couch
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photo by Clay LeConey on Unsplash
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2 poems
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at the h. f. clinic
x
to the doctor’s well
a doctor type at
the clinic where my
heart failure’s diagnosed
and worked on
blood pressure’s up due
to medication or
some other cause
there’s all the weight from
fluid that is uncomfortable
to feel but since it tends
to kill people by
some kind of drowning I
guess then I should be
grateful and you
know I am
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tawny punks
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today is
someone’s day
or something’s
thanks to
greeting cards
or causes that simply
want a day
and get authority
to say okay
x
pizza day
beagle day
greeting card day
with greeting cards
for greeting cards
a day for me
is groundhog day
because there
are no cards
so you can cross
out christmas
or new year’s
or presaged a dismal
valentine’s
and write greetings
from
Punxsutawney
over that
and so practice
spelling
Punxsutawney
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x
C L Couch
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Photo by Ralph Katieb on Unsplash
Groundhog didn’t like the late April snow (she was in the middle of nest building when it hit).
[photographer’s caption]
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two poems for Thanksgiving
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The Godmother
(Sarah Josepha Buell Hale and Thanksgiving)
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In the USA
Other nations have
Their days
It was Hale
An editor
Who lobbied
Above Washington’s
Claim as a foundation
That
The nation needed
Officially
Thanksgiving
Hale wrote to Lincoln
Other Presidents
Before
That this day was
Needed for a nation
Even in the
Horrible paradox of war
To say thank you
To whomever we should
Be saying thank you
x
Lincoln conceded
Gave a proclamation
That would not be set
For many years
Long after Hale’s
Life on Earth
Was done
x
A first Republican
Then a long-serving Democrat
(who liked new deals)
Sealed the deal
And so we have it
Fourth Thursday
In the ninth Roman month,
November
To you and me
x
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The Day We Have
(on Thanksgiving)
x
Football and turkey
Then more football
Stuffing and cranberries
Maybe ham
Or roast beef
Or sandwiches from
The many places
Selling sandwiches
x
I suppose there will be
Beer and wine
(beer before wine is fine)
Water
Juice
Soft drinks
People ‘round the table
Between quarters
x
If turkey,
Then turkey sandwiches
(little mayo,
cranberry sauce)
Before the day is done
With
More sustenance
Kept inside the box
For tomorrow
And tomorrow and tomorrow
Since there’s too much
Lucky us
Who have too much
x
C L Couch
x
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Photo by Morvanic Lee on Unsplash
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Thank you!
x
(x = space)
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The Two-Day Turn
x
Today is the day
After Labor Day
And the start of school
As God intended
The god of summer
And the god of learning
Negotiate
And merge
And tilt the seasons
So that the picnic on the holiday
Is sweet and sweeter
With only a bit
Like a zest in soup or cake
Of disappointment
x
And with the bittersweet
We sleep inside the hours
Of the change
Waking up to fall term
With excitement
Now with the zest
Of jitters
x
So the seasons’ wizened-wise divinities allow
So I think
They prefer
x
C L Couch
x
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Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash x
All at Once Everywhere
(for Christmas day, anytime)
It’s a holiday everywhere
Except where it’s not
Sometimes in some places that
Is normal
Some places not so much
Where there is suffering
Where there is illness without comfort
Where there is nothing but alone
And, you know,
Christ came for these
An infant will grow up into infinity
We will treat him horribly
He will return, because he loves us
More than that
He is here
He is with us, now
And all the angels
With the saints
That’s us
C L Couch
https://pixabay.com/en/frost-winter-morning-snow-season-633826/
Jazz Mass
Welcome to this house
Of Monk
Coltrane
And many more
Saintly-celebrating
Billie Holiday
Muddy Waters
Buddy Rich who sticks for
Ella
Sacred syncopated
Earth and all stars
Their music turns
A service
Into lifetime crazy, holy
Obligation
C L Couch
“Earth and all stars,” the first words of a hymn by Herbert Brokering composed for Saint Olaf College, Minnesota, first published in 1968
On a Monday Holiday
On a Monday holiday
Outside my window there
Is special quiet
I live on Main Street
Which, here, is
A main street
Much traffic in the
Town goes by and
Emergency vehicles
Yet all action by
Wise or by a fool
Sounds blanketed today
Even the helicopter
I hear now shudders
Through a more silent
Sky—yes, there is an
Air-push on its way
With a storm behind
But humidity rising
While the barometer
Descends does not
Evince, I think, the silence
Outside my window now
Now, where there’s
Muted sunlight, too
Where, fuzzily or not,
Thought is knocking on
The pane, asking for
An invite in—well, why
Not on this kind of day
clcouch123 
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