(x = space)

x

x

Plain

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Sigh

It’s Friday morning

We’re told

The heat is crested

So low 90s today

Which still is hard

For those of us

From here

Above equators

(there are two

you know

tell Ecuador)

And the tropic lines

x

We’ll breathe into Saturday

Be grateful

When it rains

Maybe too much

But they will break

The drought

As well

x

And these are

My

And our

Issues

Over here

How is it where you are

How is your health

And your family

How is your neighborhood

And any community wider

You are

Or must be part of

x

I am perforce

American

Though America is huge

And we tend to take the name

And then apply it

To one part

x

You are French

Or Nigerian

Or Indian

Chinese

From idealized Tibet

From Ukraine

From Russia

x

You might be from the South

Or the Northwest

Or the Northeast

Maybe all the way up

(we say)

To Maine

Maybe you know

Or encounter at the supermarket

Stephen King

x

These are places

In the USA

In France

You have

The Côte d’Azur

In Greece

Santorini for an island

(that might have been the home

of Atlantis)

In Egypt

The upper Nile

Into Ethiopia

That was Nubia

In China

There’s the Gobi

The severest place on Earth

x

And there are the people

We are people

There

x

Inhabitants of the world

The team of Earth

One people

Now we’re leaving it

And shall need identity

x

Should we live in peace

Appreciating our diversity

All

The shapes and sizes

In our making

And our choosing

The lives we have

That is

The lives we make

x

And we should make them well

And have the freedom

To do so

Too direct

Too easy

Maybe

x

But too bad to be good

Sometimes it’s easy

Put it down

The weapons

And the prejudice

Evil conditioning

Perhaps

Somewhere inside

Take up something better

Food to share

Safe water

The love of life

You know

That someone else

A group perhaps

Might need

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C L Couch

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Photo by Yuriy Bogdanov on Unsplash

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