(x = space)
x
x
Sidewalk
x
Leaves and parts
Of leaves
Here and there
Brown from fall
Pressed down
By winter
Mission accomplished
x
Green from spring
Ready to scoot
Along
Time for discovery
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by max fuchs on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Uncertainty Principle
x
God,
We have the day
And I’m thankful
x
Things must make
You thankful, too
x
Not surprises, I suppose
Though in Christ
It’s said that you are human
x
So maybe you can
Be taken in
By something that we choose
To say or do
x
Free will
Would be really free
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Katie Gerrard on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Ancient Chores
x
I imagine
Standing vigil
Is no fun
To be a soldier
On the wall
Even with peers
And a fire
In a brazier
Now and then
x
Maybe we
Call out the hours,
Which could keep
Us alert
In counting time
And I guess
The fires should be
Shielded away
From away
So that we might
Look out upon the field
To suss what
Might be stirring
x
But then
Comes the dawn
We are there
For the arrival,
Change in shift
Maybe change in orders
x
And is this
Holy, set apart
For godly purposes?
Does God arrive
In the dawn,
Apollo in a chariot
As our neighbor
Greeks might say?
x
Well, I should
Head back to
The space in which
I live
When I’m at home
x
This duty’s
Not so bad
Even as I wonder
Where is God
If in the sun
Or the chill wind
That blows
As if
Another wind
Had never
Crossed the yard
Before
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Alex Plesovskich on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Crime
x
Someone
Went up to her,
Threw acid in her face
Then ran away
x
He is at large
To coin a phrase
x
Her contact lenses
Melted into her eyes
x
She’s nearly blind
x
She breathed the acid in
And cannot eat
Solid food
x
There is burned flesh
On her face
x
What kind of criminal
Would do this?
x
I don’t know
x
Was it because she is Muslim?
x
Hate crime
Is another phrase to coin,
Though as with things we repeat
And render trite,
There is meaning here
x
She cannot be the same
x
There is pain
x
There will be healing
And there will be healing
That can never happen
x
C L Couch
x
x
Nafiak Ikram and her mom were getting out of the car at their home when a man rushed up to her, threw a caustic liquid at her face and ran off.
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“My whole life changed in a matter of five minutes,” the Hofstra University student said in an interview with WCBS-TV. “We don’t realize what we have until it’s gone.”
“. . . what could I have possibly done to somebody?”
x
Photo by Vadim Sadovski on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Earth Day
(2021)
x
And
With Earthlings there
Is a relationship
Dysfunctional and thus
Destructive,
So say
All the tops of trees
Burned
By acid rain
x
Earth survives
As it may
And sometimes must
Fight back
x
We’re only guessing
But with all the metal satellites
Surrounding,
You’d think we’d know
Earth better than
To ruin it
x
Yet we must ask
Victims of hurricanes:
The storm,
The flood that
Take one’s own
x
Earth was no friend,
And who is with them
Now?
Earth and Earthers,
I can only hope
x
Source of pleasure
Source of pain
(source of profit)
It is our world,
Though we eye another
It is our microcosm
And an old,
Old story
x
Moon who watches,
Heaven beyond,
Hell below,
Ten circles in the center
x
Everything we know
In the
Cosmic narrative
x
Maybe it’s time
To release Cartesian
Orientation,
Since lines really
Do not hold down anything
And are twisted when
New encounters
Overthrow
The old
(which is
discovery)
x
Time
To like the Earth
Again and like it better
We should know how
By now
x
C L Couch
x
x
Satellite over the coast.
x
(x = space)
x
x
Shots Fired
x
Shooting in Indianapolis
Many killed
Then the shooter
Suicides,
Which might have been the plan
Or nascent horror
In reaction
That what has been done
And how it really looks
And sounds
And smells
All senses bely everything,
The shooter’s truth
x
I know people there
So do you
Six degrees
Less
Five for being
Human
x
Now there’s talk
About the weather
As if there were
No separation
x
We can graft it all together—
Watch, we’re doing it
x
I don’t want
To know, either
It’s gross, and I’m trying
To deal in closer things
x
But there it is
We do living color well
In irony of tones
x
The coffee’s late
The toast is early
I’m not cycling well with the news
And please
Sell windows at another time
x
In Europe,
I understand
They used to add them up
The advertisements
To show them at one time
A day
And give awards for them
That everyone would follow
In gratitude, no doubt,
For separation
x
That we can do
Ecclesiastes says so
x
C L Couch
x
x
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/16/us/mass-shootings-45-one-month/index.html
x
Photo by Zinko Hein on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
a medium for heroes
x
what if a dream deferred
is not enough?
(it is a cruel question)
what if our refusal
to lift up each one
is a matter
for the Earth’s survival?
who is the next Einstein
or Jenner or the Curies
who will save us
from nature’s catastrophes
or our own?
x
they may rise
unless we have refused
them breath and opportunity
x
and without knowing
(and we never know)
we simply have to raise
each one
each one on the Earth
and the Earth itself
x
c l couch
x
x
photo by Jeff Ackley on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Signs of Protest
(civilly offered)
x
I do not understand
The people who have died
From shooting,
From hunger
Or lack of safe water,
From COVID
x
You know what I mean,
I don’t understand
The situation
That allows for these
x
Too many guns,
Not enough
Food and water,
Too much disease
x
The solution seems mathematic
Fewer guns,
More food and water,
Less disease
x
I don’t care about the politics
We’ve made death too easy
And where politics might be concerned,
We’ve rendered people into blots:
x
We take off our glasses
And look at the blots from a distance
x
We have the right
To kill
Except we don’t have it
x
Made-up spies, perhaps
Soldiers who follow orders,
Though there’s too much a burden
For them,
The soldiers and the orders
x
Stay strong
Broker peace
Don’t outlaw emotions
But outlaw hate
x
Maybe slowly we’re getting there
I don’t know
Maybe you do
I hope so
Because I have to count on you
And you and you
Not as blots
But with the most urgent
Kind of clarity
x
C L Couch
x
x
International Women’s Day in Barcelona, Spain (2009). The motto, written in Catalan, says: “Total crisis in the patriarchal system”.
By Mutari – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6151838
x
finding an image to represent protest was harder than I thought it would be; I chose this photograph because I agree that the patriarchal system is in crisis: in fact, IS a crisis
x
(x = space)
x
x
Ramadan
(2021)
x
Ninth month in the lunar calendar,
A time for fasting and reflecting
On one’s faith and submission
To God’s will
x
At night, we eat
Though I think we might save it up
For the three days’ celebration
At the end, Eid al-Fitr
x
Many, so many, would try to go
To Mecca or Jerusalem;
Though as with everything else,
This time must be different:
It’s not safe to travel
For ourselves and for our neighbors,
So community will have to mean
Home stays
x
But the meaning is unchanged,
And I wish for my neighbors
Days of prayer and meaning
And a season of
So many blessings
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Benjamin Voros on Unsplash
x
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