plastic


libretto

God is a funny old thing
which I suppose
has not been said so often
and
maybe should not be said again

old
though
well
because you know

and funny because
there’s the ostrich
and the platypus
and auk

and us

and we’re funny when we’re not
tragic
such goodness and also
such corruption
and what to do with funny
old
us
not so ole
though we have tried the Earth
over ages

as an image

and are there parts of
the model we’re forgetting
the eccentric
parts
the kind
the giving when the bottom line says no

a resistance to build monuments
and let art live in
other places
other ways
that let stone breathe
and
even plastic we might build with

even to take the things with
which we poison
Earth
flora and fauna and let them speak
creative

while we go creative
first and also practical
because all
our strengths
are
strong out of
belief in ourselves
and
that’s the model
too

for God is all that’s good and also
useful
also beautiful
in all the ways we have been made and not
to judge so much as
dance

remembering the first inspirator
in
our notes
and in our steps

c l couch


photograph by Hans at Unsplash

particulates

what’s in the air
beside air

beside oxygen and nitrogen
argon
and the rest that has been there
for ages
with additions of smoke
in time
and then smog

radioactivity
changing art appreciation
and
the health of lungs
and such

other chemicals by now
plus plastic
parts
parts per million I suppose to measure

we breathe in bad things by us
belying the cartoon
version
of
artificial respiration
out with the bad air
in with the good
now
out with the bad air
in with badder

why we pollute ourselves
should be
a global conundrum
of
some
well
great urgency

we breathe through filters
helped by machines and when it’s worse
through
masks
we drink water from our plastic
metal bottles

we think we are immune
I guess
some of us
I guess

while failing to track for everyone
since
everyone’s affected
the work of all
societies
that measure and by measure
warn
the rates of cancer

c l couch

photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash
“Los Angeles, CA, USA”

(another preachy poem, and I could be sorry, but this one came to mind and word by my experience)