Sometimes a Celestial View Required
Sometimes it’s as simple
As it’s wonderful
Lord made us
And Lord loves us
It might not seem that way
In hospitals
Especially in cancer wards
Burn wards
Terminal compartments
But there
Is love
It’s in these places
In the prayers
And in the spirits
That are struggling all
Around
Where angels
Set themselves as well
To listen
Watch
And weep
On assignment
Forsaken
Never
By the ones
Remaining
(and that’s most
of them)
On our side
A war in heaven
Wars on Earth
Extant
Allowed
By a God who loves so much
To keep us on our own
Even though there could be
Cosmic automation
And so there are
The sides
The wings of war that
Transitory fly
Sinless disease
Conditions
Damage
And those fighting all around
For health
Finally
For all the foes
Of war
Of what we cause each other
And
Disease
By what happens
For a reason
Or by anyway
Keep going at it
Kid
Keep going for the healing
And all you
With the kid
In the battle
All the battles
On
After
The battlefields
Stay with
Us
Keep us going toward
All the health available
On this
Side
You know
And
Yes
Perfectly
The other
C L Couch
Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash
we know they’re there
(x = space)
x
x
Going Outside on My Own after Hospital
x
Today there is a fair
Happening down the street
I could go out
To see it, hear it, taste it
Certainly to smell it
Shall I go?
x
A Prufrockian kind
Of consideration
Except I’ve been in hospital
(as the English say
without an article)
And I’m still sore
And I’m tired
And I don’t know if the twinges
I feel
Mean something
x
The cool of the morning
Now would be
The time to go
x
x
C L Couch
x
Photo by Sandra Seitamaa on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Cancerous
x
We’ve been five
Soon we will be four
That is the prognosis
Palliation
Hospice
These are discussed
And sought
For him
x
Out of order
Since he’s not the oldest
In mere math of life
It could have been me
I’m the one with the machine
To keep me going
But I guess
(today’s not over)
It’s not me
(for now)
x
The math doesn’t matter
Not important
Math matters elsewhere
In the dosage
Of his medication
In the number of his place
In the hospital
His apartment number
To which they say
He will not be returning
x
It’s not me
It’s him
He is important now
But I have to say
It’s been a problem all along,
Frankly, with me
I don’t know how to lose
A brother
x
And has he ever learned
To live with this
I’d say so
A mystery he did resolve
Through work
Through home
Maybe through old movies
He knows so well
x
And one day
All shall be all
God bless everyone
Who tries
Who’s trying now
One by one
Who practices with grace,
Each fitness for heaven
That shall be judged
By perfect love intending
Hoping that
Full health to be restored
x
God bless everyone
God bless each one
God bless Rick
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
The Latest
(family things)
x
My brother’s in the hospital
I’m not sure what that means
He fell
I know that much
He spent the night outside,
Which I think must mean
There’s trauma
x
A body worked too hard
A body with cancer worked too hard
A neighbor saw him in the morning
And called 911
He’s hundreds of miles away
And he’s in the hospital
In downtown Pittsburgh
My sister says the hospital is good
Urban, smart, efficient
x
Everyone knows their jobs
And what to do for him
x
Now we know
We’re standing by
Something will happen
And we’ll all come in
It doesn’t have to take an ending
He simply needs to be in one place
Or another
For a time
x
What contemporary medicine allows
And Medicare affords
A rehab center
For new fractures
While his cancer’s tended
And he
And everyone
Must deal with that
x
We’ve been out there
When and where shall we go now?
x
I’ve rattled all this off
Because
I don’t know how to be ready
For what’s next
I wish I had resources
Of all kinds
x
Family things
Obviously
Certainly (to push on
the conceit) I don’t mind
If you know
x
If you pray,
Maybe you’ll pray
I believe the power in that
God bless him
And help us all
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Favors
(in pandemic time)
x
The toilet’s broken
Thank me for sharing
Since I rent,
It’s up to someone else
And someone else to fix it
Meanwhile, I wait
As best I may
And all my systems
It’s not as if one can run
Down to the gas station and
Use the loo, since
The disease is keeping many things
Locked up (as it should)
It’s not the worst of things
I’ll tell myself as I
Keep waiting through the day
My brother’s home from the hospital
To rest and improve
From what was diagnosed
To say the least,
He is more important
And I’m thankful
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Gilles Desjardins on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Good Signals
x
I had the extra headache
Yesterday
Today, eyelids are heavy
(really are)
So with the tranq
That puppy dogs at veterinarians’
Get,
I could stand to sleep
For twelve hours or so
There was the time
When it was so bad
I got taken to the emergency room
At night,
Where I waited a long while
To be told to leave
Without assist
(except to be told to leave)
Six months I had slept
Maybe an hour a night
I was falling apart
Inside,
Which might be the kind of thing
That leads people
To scream in emergency rooms,
Which I didn’t
But didn’t sleep that night,
Either
x
Finally, nothing kept happening
And sometimes
I could get more sleep,
Though it took
A heart attack to move me forward
With the world
If we wore signs,
Would that make it better?
The signs would have to
Talk as well
Maybe give off scents
And have a taste
So that the senses become
Part of the message
(sending and receiving),
Too
x
Well, I have this day
(clearly, so do you)
The headache band is eased
Somewhat—and one might not believe
That I’m thankful
For all this
If so (if not), maybe it takes
Appreciating the knock on the gate
To be told in silence
Not time yet
And in reaction
Gratitude
For day-to-day mortality
x
C L Couch
x
x
The Grounds of Alexandria, Alexandria, Australia
x
Breaking Good
(BrGd, Periodically speaking—it’s kind of a pun, sorry)
Sometimes I can’t conform
Maybe that’s often
You see, I had not been in the
Hospital much throughout
My life,
Not really since birth, in fact, except
To visit
I didn’t mind hospitals, didn’t feel
Drawn toward them, either
I had a chaplain friend at
Children’s in Cincinnati whose ministry was
A series of small miracles
I say small because he worked with
Children
Whom he could find through all the
Tubes
And meters and restrictions
Of the I.C.U.
To find the child every time
I wished he lived in Harrisburg
Or I lived again in the Queen
City
Anyway, the siege began when I
Was forty-five or so
The combatants are, frankly, dying
And me
Much of the battlefield has been
Inside Holy Spirit then at Harrisburg
It goes on
Now I have strong feelings about
Hospitals, and the
Feelings are not good
In this, I touch a universal feeling,
If too severely,
That of going there
So that I might get out
The people there are good
Nearly everyone I’ve met is kind
If not, the unkind ones came by
While the anesthesia was
Having its way
I’ve been to rehab, too
Stayed at my sister’s house for care
(my nephew visiting my
sick room every day, because
he didn’t have to)
So buildings are not bad, not for
Recovery, though
I’ll never lose the knack
For outside air
So this is about conformity
Many rules in institutions, as
You know
(now so do I
in a living and not yet dying way)
I can take the strictures for a
While
Then must bust out before I
Burst inside
Trite way to put it, since
It’s part of what, what is it called,
Psychopathy? pathology?—either sounds
Important
I must break out from time to time
Join the rest of us outside
Take a walk or
A short drive to nowhere in
Particular
Sort of a habit, anyway
Now a tontine between nature and
Me
Here I am
There’s the world:
It seems I need its vastness
More than ever now
C L Couch
periodic table of the elements in Chinese
(from the web page)
Have you ever wondered if the names of elements are the same in other languages? Different languages have different words for the same thing, why should the elements be any different?
(from me)
There are usable, printable (free) renderings of the Periodic Table of the Elements out there. I use the Chinese version here with the understanding (and the message) that science is, or should be, ecumenical.
Hospitalism
My sister tells me it’s a man thing
Not wanting to go to the
Hospital
It’s certainly true that I do not want to go
And that I thought this
A healthy inclination
Now I wonder if for those women who
Care so much
(In quantity and quality) if there is a
Kind of comfort there
Someone else to provide, to
Decide,
To break the news
And deal with it first
C L Couch
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