Loss Is Great
(a fantasy)

1
Loss is great
So in loss
Like a song
I wander
And
I wonder

I’m sure the loss in heaven
Was felt greatly
More so
Maybe
Than the war that followed

That goes on
Still
Perhaps
What do we know
Of time and strategy
Among
Timeless
(and all-strategic)
Beings

Will it be over
When
Revelation says so

And how much is this war
Our war

It seems
For lack of orders
We do not fight
In this

And yet
Something like effects
Are always with us in
Mortality

That is
Temptation
Even falls
Great falls
Some of us
Take

And how much influence
How much willfulness
Decided
How much
Or all
Of it

Person or demon
Devil
Behind it all
Deceiving
That seems to be its job

So is the war all
Around us
Because
I don’t think we’re training
For it

I don’t think we’re supposed to be
Fighting
In it
Meaning
I mean
How could we

2
Orders
Above
Has me thinking
Order
Then orderly
(the noun more than
the adverb)

And  might I serve as
An orderly
Behind
The line
Fixing
(helping to fix)
Wounded angels

Why
That would be
Wonderful service
	Yes
	The wonder
	In the angels
	But the wonder in
	The service
For I could not fight for lack
Of wings
Or blades
Or
You know
An unlimited kind of strength
Yet
I could serve this way
To fix the angels
Then with trench-deep regret
Know
They return

And should a demon
Hurt
Come to the table
Then we fix it
Too
Because in love
There can be no other
Craft
No other option
To apply

Though
When repaired
It
Too
Returns

Maybe tries to hurt us
As it begins

I don’t know what protections
Might be
Afforded orderlies
From Earth
(or moon or Mars
depending on the length
of battle)
Maybe no succor
Whatsoever
Since
Triage
Would be for
Celestial soldiers
Of all orders
First

And there’s the word
Orders again
And maybe I wake up
To hear the cry
Or is it
Near my ear
The mourning dove
Through
Glass

And I wake
To mortal pain’s
Return

C L Couch


(one allusion is to “I Wander as I Wonder,” a song by John Jacob Niles)

Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash