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pandemic

Weather Permitting

(x = space)

x

x

Weather Permitting

(in pandemic time)

x

The texts say

I have a doctor’s appointment

Tomorrow

A fedora of adventure,

Anymore

I’ll go,

If the car is working well

Enough (been turning

rough, lately)

x

And should there be snow

Or rain or ice,

I’ll go as carefully as I can

If the street is clear enough

And the car isn’t

Covered over

Too much

x

You see, the second

Winter skyfall

Of the season is

Predicted later today

Tonight

Into the morning hours

x

Say I get there

I’ll need marching orders

For masking, distancing

Simply to go inside

x

Then there’s the reason

Hopefully, I’ll have

A list

I’m hoping, really,

That we’re meeting

Over vaccines

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Jason Jarrach on Unsplash

x

2

Friendly Persuasion

(x = space)

x

x

Friendly Persuasion

x

May I ask you to stay in today?

To leave to do your work

Or run errands

With a mask on?

In this moment, we are the worst

On Earth for responding to the disease

x

Thank goodness we have

All the measures that we have

In place, facilities and people

Exhausted now, even the facilities

x

We don’t want to pay attention, I suppose

As a teacher, I can understand

I don’t always like

Paying attention, either

But, come on,

We pride ourselves at being good

At things—where is that now?

Are we all about impeachment?

I’m not

I’m trying to live on

Very small steps, just now

Many taken in adaptation

x

Well, it will be a day

That is beginning

And you will have a day that starts

Maybe there will be some magic

Maybe grace

We can hope for both

While chores and greater challenges

Take our time

x

And, by the way, the people in Flint, Michigan

Need safe water

In the USA

x

C L Couch

x

x

the title is swiped—I mean, uh, an homage—to a story about a Quaker family and the Civil War

x

CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1226563

filed under “peaceable kingdom” at Wikipedia (really)

x

2

Shipwreck of State

(x = space)

x

x

Shipwreck of State

(in pandemic time)

x

By the way, the highest number

Of cases was reported

Yesterday

But this mass lack of perspective

Child’s bid for attention

Ersatz use of masks

x

We don’t want to care, anymore

We have sick to care for

Too many dead to bury

In decency,

Though we’ll try

x

It isn’t that important,

The thing inside white buildings

In the capitol,

State houses similarly infected

x

There is disease,

And there is disease

Politics aside—and that’s it, isn’t it?

Putting aside what is

Supposed to serve us

With our money

With our votes

With belief

x

We have lives to deal with

And lack of life to mourn,

x

Which is the real nation

That like church

Means all the people

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by NOAA on Unsplash

Bow of the TITANIC

x

5

Fate Unravels

Fate Unravels

(for Rosema in pandemic time)

x

I don’t know what to say

Today, it’s Friday

Hanukkah

Christmastime

Specifically, the Advent

Season

x

Who is coming to my house?

No one, for above the

First floor, we are not friends

x

We’re good as strangers

And a little worse

It’s so pretty outside

In a pastel way

It’s not as cold

As December should be

Around here

But it’s within the comfort zone

Generally,

Forties to seventies,

And I should not complain

x

A murder mystery

And if there’s no one to admire

Or a hero garnering

My admiration,

Then I’m not sure how much

I’ll care,

Since it isn’t real death, after all

x

So I’ll close the book and choose another

I’ll choose another day

Simply by waiting,

Persisting through this one

Not that it’s bad

But it’s the same

x

Under the aegis of pandemic

An aegis that’s a weight

Upon the mind, the heart, the soul

That we’re supposed to love God with,

All three

x

As for festivities,

It’s all right to have them quietly

Under a cellular radar

And should,

Like Penelope or fate,

We have to unloom the loom

Each night,

We’ll have another day

To reweave

With what we have

To raise our masks

Like players on an ancient

Stage,

To love close up

And as current love requires

From far away

x

CLC

x

https://areadingwritr.wordpress.com/

read her great and open work

x

Photo by Josh Redd on Unsplash

Kansas, USA

x

1

Rescue Time

(x = space)

x

x

Rescue Time

x

1

x

Monday

Is remembrance

And for some reason

(for that reason?)

A deadline for

Medicare plans

x

We remember days

Invaded and sometimes

Days invading:

x

Sixth of June

In Normandy,

Sometimes Grenada

x

Remembrance to

Become a kind of normalcy;

We turn it

Into ritual,

A plain on which to

Cry

However smally

And to celebrate,

Wave small flags

Attending on parades

x

Later or before

By gravestones or

With photo albums

x

2

x

We’ll have

So many reasons

To remember now

With names and with dates

x

We could remember

As we go

x

The numbers needing

To dealt with

For what they mean

In bodies

And the layers of

What they mean,

What has been lost

x

Talk of remembrance

Ironically

Or,

Ignoring politics,

Through the heart

x

C L Couch

x

x

4380 CA-46 W, Paso Robles, United States

Paso Robles

(https://www.brucemunro.co.uk/

https://www.travelpaso.com/blog/post/your-virtual-escape-to-paso-robles/)

x

0

Beadling

(x = space)

x

x

Beadling

(pandemic time)

x

It’s Sunday

I thought it was Saturday

Maybe you’re having this problem, too

So I should think church

(good Catholic or Protestant

Christian)

And I do

Though I don’t think I’ll go

Until the year of doing nothing

Has expired

Nothing but science and care

I do what I can

Pray for them

Send bits of money

Wait

Wish it were all over

For the living to be living

More fully

Perhaps more mindfully

Again

x

C L Couch

x

x

(a beadle, church officer, bearing

a rod with a feather at one end and a heavy ball

or other weight at the other

not for adults do we spare the rod

depending on how deeply was the parishioner

snoozing, he or she got one end or the other)

x

x

Photo by Evie S. on Unsplash

x

2

The Year When We Do Nothing

The Year When We Do Nothing

(pandemic time)

 

This should have been

The year when we do nothing

When we live with fear and boredom

And are resolute

When we soberly keep up with the news

And mourn the passing of so many

When we sing from window to window

As was done in Italy

Finding all the gestures that we can

Safely to say we’re here

We’re counting

We weep

And we maintain hope as bravely as we can

 

A year when we remember

Prioritize

Keep perspective

Love each other, those who are leaving us,

All who remain

As carefully as possible

In a year, we can have expectations

We’ll be smarter, then

About how to live

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Artur Aldyrkhanov on Unsplash

Valensole, France

Bokeh in Lavender

 

6

Only Wednesday

Only Wednesday

(in pandemic time)

 

I think we need a good day

And being sensible

About it

Try to avoid the stupid world

And wrap around the smart one

Our friends, I think, are

Counting on us

Not to build a platform

From which to sell whatever

Made wherever

 

I think they want to count on

Honesty

While in politics none is expected

Maybe because cheating

There

For too many is like breathing,

Reaching for a wallet

To spend

Someone else’s money

 

The rest of us

Can be smart

In real daytime life,

We can take precautions

We wash our hands in life

Every day

Masks are hot to wear

But we can breathe through them

If we can’t,

Then that’s an exception

 

We can still drive and ride

We’re fortunate not to be stopped

At borders,

Locally

As and if we’re well,

We can get out of cutaneous shells

To make or remake ourselves

Aware of those who will take help

With the means

For

All the troubled places

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Mélissa Jeanty on Unsplash

Haiti

 

2

Painting by Numbers

Painting by Numbers

(pandemicism)

 

I’m unsure what to say about

Those who die today

Saluting nothing

No cause but the spread of a disease

We will number them

We’ll try

Then we’ll try to

Turn them into issues

On platforms

Of lies,

Of anything but names and

All the parts

Of lives

That some carried

And bear now

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Pierre Bamin on Unsplash

 

5

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