lento

a few things I’d rather have written about today (and then heard further about the shooting)


Tributaries

Today is
Mom’s birthday
She’s been gone
Since ‘83
Gee
Now fifty years ago
Come 13 June

There is gravestone
With a flower
Though we had planned
A rabbit
And they go it
Wrong

So many things went wrong
Back then
And not to say
Things are so smooth now
There’s legacy
Though certainly
We’re on our own
And up to us
And on us
All our choices

By life
She lived too brief a life
I had wishes
For gifts and such
Hopes for relating
Never realized
Dreams
Dissolved
Everything went numb
And dark
For a while
And some of that remains
Even fifty years
Later

When it’s late
In the time
Of all of us
The children
While it’s also blessed early
For the new ones
To carry on
Inside generations
One by one
And all together

One, two, three, four
Black, white, green, red

One by one
And all together
Now


The Today Show

Today
Is a better day
Because I washed something

You don’t know what it means
If you’re depressed
And then
Improve one thing
One small thing

Unless
You are depressed
And maybe this works for you
As well
I hope so

Not to scrub
Obsessively
Toward bleeding in
(bleeding out
or in)
Somewhere

I mean washing
Almost without thought
Cleaning it
For safer
More hygienic use
Again

So ordinary
Now so extraordinary
Realized
And realized

There’s
Some sort of spiritual
Match in this
The extraordinary
In the ordinary
I can’t remember

Is it us
Made by God
This way
To live that way

Is it our purpose
Or the purpose of the universe
Made of small things
That become huge
In planet-making
In eruptions
Upon every rounded surface
At some time

I don’t know
Somehow the small is large
While remaining small
And I cleaned
Something small
And it has largened
My awareness
Just enough
To let in something better
And I could give it
A name
But for now
Will simply live with it
Let it live with me
(please let it live with me
a plea)
Nameless
And wondrous
For a while


lento

the ashes are gone
most likely
(we’re supposed
to let them fall off
naturally)
sometimes the skin
is broken
where they were
upon our foreheads
anyway
we’re in Lent now
the long season
named for the lengthening
of days

it is the Italian word
that also comes to mind
lento
meaning slow
play the music here
with ease
taking your time
while attending to
the baton
ahead of everything
the instruments
and guiding
interpretation

the Buddhists say
go slowly
they’re on to something
especially
for these days
in which the days grow
gradually longer
in assurance of spring
the green season
on its way
and we hope it will arrive
with nutrients enough
in soil
and rain enough
from above
and our good choices what
to plant
so that at long last
there might be abundance
though we’ll need  the right amounts
of rain and sun
from above

a spiritual collaboration
we might believe
and hope for
even plan for
in these lengthening
of days

we make time now
to file away
what we know
and don’t know yet

eat less now
think more
lay a new foundation
for prayer
more solid convictions
and intentions
on which the frenzy
soon enough
will build

time now
maybe for dreams as well
to have them
talk about them
with the Lord
and with each other
on the plane of Earth

C L Couch


Photo by Praveen kumar Mathivanan on Unsplash