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We Land

(x = space)

x

x

We Land

x

It is the first

There is a special on TV

Three weeks from now

We land

We land

x

Let’s see

I was twelve

So much I didn’t know

But I was watching

Listening

Technical language

About pitch

And descent

Then dust kicked up

Then landed

I don’t remember Cronkite’s

Reaction

I’ve seen it since

Maybe my parents preferred

Another network

But they were down

Tranquility Base

There had been no base

They were the base

They were on

The moon

Armstrong and Aldrin

While Collins flew above

Waiting for retrieval

And then for the ship

To take them back home

x

That’s where we were

x

Armstrong got out

Kept talking

So we knew

He was alive

He descended

Left the ladder

Touched upon

The world

Near our world

x

One small step for (a) man

One giant leap for mankind

x

When they left

There was a plaque

About accomplishment

And peace

Signed by Nixon

A phantom pledge fulfilled

Since no one

Specifically had asked

Though Kennedy

Had said

x

The space race gave us

Microwaves

Ballpoint pens

And Tang

So there was usefulness

And whatever to be said

In winning

At least

Our saying

That we won

x

I thought we’d keep going back

I thought there’s be a base

With walls and windows

A round roof

And lots

And lots

Of oxygen inside

I guess that is about to happen

Now

And we’ll find out

If we disturb

The empire inside

That H. G. Wells

Fictively

Foretold

x

Or Clarke’s sentinel

Or maybe there shall be

A little

Prince

x

1969

We also went

To Woodstock

We protested war

All the contention of

My older brothers’ generation

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Guzmán Barquín on Unsplash

x

2

Nearing Full

(x = space)

x

x

Nearing Full

x

The moon is yellow

The sky is blue

The clouds are silver

The stars are white

The branches have no color

Except the color

Of porch lights

x

It’s late again

The air is cool

Maybe in the fifties

Maybe forties,

Which is not so special

As a sign of autumn

In October

In these parts

But the days and nights

Have been too warm

Now the season

Is announced

x

We’ll have the chilly fall

And with the drop

To cold

At a propitious time

Beautiful leaf colors,

True

Autumn review

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Eleanor Brooke on Unsplash

x

0

right-angle shadows on the moon

right-angle shadows on the moon

x

before the multiverse

occurred

the universe is infinite

all possibilities

here

x

there might be variations

upon our everything

slipped

through dimensions

frosting on creators’ cakes

x

a calculator without ending

solving pi

a Rubik’s cube offered of

galactic proportions

x

the other side of black holes

is an upside-down that we get used to

once we’re there

where Amelia Earhart

and the crew of the Mary Celeste

found solace

in their time

and what is time

when only numbered four or five

in a mult-dimensional count?

x

here we have questions

there

there are the answers if

upside-down

x

go far enough

to find the portals

to what

might be

the multi-elsewheres

x

c l couch

x

20 july 1969

x

x

photo by nasa on unsplash

x

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By and By

(x = space)

x

x

By and By

x

The circle won’t be broken

Let’s say again

Let’s sing again

Let’s dance again

Wonderful rings

That only break

To let someone in

Newcomers

Those returned

From the field

One kind or another

Outside there is potluck

Everyone bring

Something

While without doubt

Those without

Are so very, very welcome

Honey, too

x

You take my hand

And come along

All are welcome

Don’t worry about

That other thing for now

If you’re tired,

Rest first

Hungry, thirsty

Take care of that

We’ll be watching over you

Like angels from

The other song

Our circle is strong

We get the idea from the sun

And moon

And heaven

Heaven knows

x

God there

God here

Welcome, child

No, we do not care

About that

Come as you are

Heh-heh

Come eat

Come drink

Come dance

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Bryan Goff on Unsplash

x

0

Animated

(x = space)

x

x

Animated

x

I imagine a cartoon globe,

The kind of old cartoon

Like old Popeyes or old Mickeys,

A cartoon Earth

Sending explosions into space: from

South Africa,

Afghanistan, Yemen

Cuba, Haiti,

And from certain places in

The USA

x

Maybe there are soldiers

(now we’re talking cels

for newsreels)

Marching through this cartoon

In perfect lock-step,

And maybe rockets are fired

With animated

Accuracy

x

And maybe the moon

Looks down with tears

As parts of Earth

Burn up,

The tears maybe cartoon-falling

From the face

On the fires

x

C L Couch

x

x

jah$tar printed graphics for animation. ammo stilo. grounded media. May, 2021.

Photo by Matt Moloney on Unsplash

Philly, PA, USA

x

0

Practical Lack of Magic

(x = space)

x

x

Practical Lack of Magic

x

I am tired

With a blanket ‘round me

Wishing for

Some writing

That would serve

The quiet, sobbing Earth

x

The moon

And Mars

That shake for prospects,

Having heard

That we are coming

With agendas

And mechanical persistence

x

The moon’s already scarred

Not that we

Shouldn’t go

But have a care

At least

For places that so far

Have gone untouched

x

Mystery

Romance of the unknown

Once resolved,

What we will see

When look up

Is practical

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Forest Katsch on Unsplash

South Padre Island, TX, USA

Starship SN8 lifts off from SpaceX’s South Texas facility in Cameron County.

x

0

Antecedents

(x = space)

x

x

Antecedents

x

I told my students,

Not so many pronouns

Making sure the subject is at hand

And it agrees

Not for the writer’s sake

But for mine

And any readers—

Say, a boss

Or those who must approve

The presentation with

The recommendation

x

Yet here I am, often

Making a mystery of it

I want you to work a little

Sorry

To track the subjects

And to understand

How often they are intertwined,

And that’s real

x

We have antecedents, too

Those who came before

And sometimes it’s a mystery

That we work out

With records and with words

To have something

Of a story

The genealogists with

Wisdom

And best-guessing

Giving answers so the rest of us move

On in the present

x

Where we come from

Is Earth

In a gorge that was a garden

In a crescent

By three rivers

It’s a story and a good one

Whether Genesis or

The Silmarillion

Or Gilgamesh or

Theogony (when he believed)

Or Metamorphoses (when he did not)

Or the God

Who placed a hand down from the sky

To Earth

To spread the plains and, around the edges,

All the mountains

Or one who came up from below

Closer to the ground

And loving it

Did make mortals when going below

Was needed

To sort out all the hot things there

(I made this last one up)

x

But all (real) depictions

Seem to contain a fall

Divinity or demons

Or our bad choices

They all live with us

(divinity, demons, choices)

Not only for the Calvinists

But as a reason

For the failures in a day

In an hour of time

Under the sun

Or in the argent light of moon

Wherever we trip,

Try to right ourselves

To dance again

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Matt Nelson on Unsplash

Vonore, United States

x

0

There and There

There and There

(and back again)

 

The moon is blue

The sky beyond is bluer

I wish I knew a torchy song to sing

Something that might work

In a film noir

Or at the halfway point

In a musical revue

 

But in a time of hobbits and

Of elves, this night might

Be converted into singing,

Storytelling of another kind

With fires sparked

By magic and with other, eldritch lights,

With fire in the eyes

Of those who trill laments

Of epic heroes lost so long ago

 

But, sigh,

We are in the backyard

On some chairs,

Cast-off lumber from a project

In the pit

And there are sticks

For cooking marshmallows

And maybe we don’t sing

Except for little choruses, here and

There

 

With no lament except

Too soon we will have eaten,

The fire will have mostly

Died, our extinguishing the rest

The best next thing we’ll do

Is sleep

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Holger Link on Unsplash

Fire Pit

 

2

Microcosmic

Microcosmic

(9/14/19)

 

I didn’t see the micro-moon

Last night

I think it was too small

I think it was bounced around

The points of stars

Like the silver ball

In an arcade machine

A comet might have caught it

With its tail

And shooed it to

Another side of night

 

Perhaps the Milky Way gave way

To make a berth of its fluidity

For a small moon to rest

Off the path

 

The moon must rule at night

That is a cosmic dictum

But every now and then

(it takes an apogee)

There is a smaller size

And there is room among the lesser

Lights

A greater sky-democracy

That gets everything up there

To partner up to grace

‘Round and as

All the spheres

 

It was cloudy haze and haze of clouds

But it was fun to think another night

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by esudroff from Pixabay

 

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