(x = space)
x
x
Protocol
x
Sorry that this must be news
This should be ordinary
x
There will be a shot today
Not heard ‘round the world
Simply a needle into skin
With the release of
New chemicals inside
The body
x
Then another shot, as is the
Protocol, in a while
x
C L Couch
x
x
Image by Markus Distelrath from Pixabay
x
Broadside
A hospital on fire in Gettysburg
A fatal crash on I-83, a driver in a Jetta
Having collided with a tractor-trailer
A woman indicted for drowning her child
In a toilet
Thirty students fight at John Harris High School
A school assembly tries to respond
A driver of an ambulance sentenced
For speeding then running down two people
(no sirens at the time)
How to save money running prisons
In our state
The incarceration rate in Pennsylvania
Exceeds that of Russia or Turkey,
So says the auditor
Jail fewer people, he asserts
The national shutdown is into day 27
Eight hundred thousand people are not paid
Many reaching out for public services
And “hardship withdrawals”
A story is upcoming about adopting pets
Then a commercial break,
During which I think
I see too few now
Hannah was presented me by a friend
When I was interacting with more people
All over town
But this is what’s important, as reported
Snow falling later on today
C L Couch
Dawkins, Henry, -1786? – Library of Congress Catalog: https://lccn.loc.gov/2010645651 Image download: https://cdn.loc.gov/master/pnp/ppmsca/30500/30574u.tif Original url: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010645651/
Here’s News (and a Haibun)
(1)
Here are three news leads from The Guardian:
The United Nations has for the first time signalled its “human rights obligation” over the deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti that has claimed the lives of at least 30,000 people.
‘It’s only working for the white kids’: American soccer’s diversity problem [headline]
Yesterday, a report came out that said more than 1,000 migrants and refugees have died just in the last week while crossing the Mediterranean.
(2)
Everyone on all sides of things is falling down. UN peacekeeping. Soccer, the world’s sport. Migrants we don’t count who die. Doesn’t help my own precarious feelings about stability or sanity in the world. Doesn’t help the fragility in me or mine. On this side of apocalypse (only frightening for some), what might we save? In order to retain poetics, I’ve refrained from news of politics today. I doubt anymore the answer’s there.
(3)
Black box of the plane
Black box of refugee’s boat
Black box of sea’s depths
Psalm 37
a song of earthly rendering
When news is so bad
Coupled with lack of opportunity
Everything is weighted down, dear Lord
I don’t know how to make it better
To see it better
To feel it better
Please, what shall I do
In past work, we see
That you are there
That you follow us through mountain passes
Over peaks
And in valleys so blinding in fog over the way
That we could be underneath earth as well as above
You bring us home, dear Lord
And are with us in safety
Or in peril
Calm our fears so that we might enjoy some relaxation in peace
Some soft moments in our day
Some mercy on the way
Let your justice prevail, O Lord, so much better than ours
May your help be plentiful
Your presence touchable
If only upon
The surface of our spirits
Because we can keep it dense and difficult
To allow you further in
Pardon me and be with me
Even when I am poor in realizing you
Haiku over Coffee
(while I was away)
Fat robin. Pregnant?
Why not, this is fecund time.
Eggs into small birds.
(walking through the yard)
never never ne
ver will I trust in this a
gain mean it this time
(playing with “never” the way
Shakespeare plays “tomorrow”)
“selfishness of mind”
is the “common enemy”
Dalai Lama bless
(at the bookstore)
Too much death in news
Guns, traffic, derailments, fire
Country mouse for home
(reading and watching the city
news at the same time)
So you know, all friends
Each drafting of one of these
Truly with coffee
(even now)
Reading the Sunday Paper
on my First Day (Back) Here
I am in the City
Of Bridges, the
Renaissance City,
The Steel city
And today I look
At a major
City’s newspaper
Horrors and other
Troubles in Brussels,
In Istanbul, and
Syria (reported
From Beirut)
Also talk of state
Candidates for the
Fall that in my
State part
I haven’t heard
Of
A hopeful market,
This
It is a special day,
Which is covered
Through testimony
From leaders
Of movements
In communities
Contiguous,
Congealed
There is a story
Of architecture here,
Appropriately given
The age and grand
(Sky-scraping) efforts
Of artists and
Builders over
Time
The obituary
Section’s long with
Detailed histories told
Of those now
Taken
Editorials, reader
Opinions pretty
Well-reasoned
One take arguing
That civility
Itself must rule
Practices in public
Discourse
I skipped the ads
And comic stories
(So far) but pore
Through tailored
Regional parts (the
House I visit is in
The west)
There are big
Cities over many
Points in our
Compassed globe
While enormity
Conveys impersonal
Anxiety
There is an appreciable
Nexus of talent
Nature-distributed
Urban-planned
And neighborly
Diversity
Freedom in
That
Inexorable, the
City strives
With many things
Challenge
Then to celebrate
clcouch123 
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