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Partial Recall

(x = space)

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Partial Recall

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How many things I’ve missed

In the last few days

The Lunar New Year

Valentine’s

The birthday of my mother

She died thirty-eight years ago

Shrove Tuesday

Ash Wednesday

Diagnoses take their toll

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Today the rover Perseverance

Lands on Mars

I should see and hear that

And all the other days

Will have gone by

Love in the time of plague

To contemplate while waiting

In her office

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We go on

We sigh, we breathe

We go somewhere

Where there is no breath

Unless we bring it with us

Then we craft it

Inside something like

New wineskins

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C L Couch

(2/18/2021)

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Photo by Lucas Myers on Unsplash

Cinder Cone, United States

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Pirated Life

(x = space)

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Pirated Life

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Several hours later,

I meet with my band

In the woods

We go to the cave

That is our hideout

And headquarters

Time (past time)

For another adventure

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You check out the dragon

Take dimensions

Find out if he must be foe

Or would it come on

As an ally

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You and you

Find out who has jewels

In town

And if the jewels are fair

And are the owners fair

There’s precedence

To take them,

Re-reward them to

Those who have the need

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I’ll spy out the rest

All the possibilities

Then draw out

A fine, nefarious campaign

Out best yet and

More profitable

Than the Hood or Ali Baba

Edward Teach,

Anne Bonny,

All the rest in the unformed

Guild of thieves

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C L Couch

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Photo by Bas Glaap on Unsplash

Fremantle WA, Australia

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3

Thought-Powered Words

(x = words)

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Thought-Powered Words

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The results were not good

I don’t mean to diary about it

But another organ is in trouble

I mean, I feel it

I thought it was gas

(hah)

And now I feel slowed-down today

In fact, since the phone call

Yesterday

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Pray for me, friends,

As I pray for you

Though it’s not a deal—I

Pray for you anyway, and of course

I’m not sure what you do

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But love has different kinds,

Hasn’t it?

We have ways to regard each other

Respecting who we are

What’s going well,

What’s not

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I’ll take a good thought anytime

And be thankful

The words without thoughts don’t rise

As Claudius confesses

(Hamlet doesn’t hear)

But your words are thoughtful

They soar

I know,

I read them all the time

Then watch and hear

With the inner parts

Of eye and ear

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C L Couch

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citation

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3 (last two lines)

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Photo by Rafik Wahba on Unsplash

Cincinnati, OH, USA

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After the Blood Test

(x = space)

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After the Blood Test

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The kind that requires

A fast

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I didn’t take my pills,

Either

Or had water

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I waited for a while

But this was appointed

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They should take me

And they did

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I leave with less

Than I came in with

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I face the day outside,

Later afternoon

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I wander if the person

Who had miles to go

Felt tired,

Making the desire

To stop a temptation?

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I get in the car

Hear the tires pressing

On the snow

As I head out

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Turn the wheel

To point myself

Down one hill

Across some water

Up the other side

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The sky gets dark

As the miles to go

Are done,

But now I know

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I don’t know for sure

The measure of the distance

For results

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C L Couch

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Photo by Byron Johnson on Unsplash

Great Smoky Mountains, United States

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2

The Haunted Woman

(x = space)

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The Haunted Woman

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She was from Kentucky

Her family harbored

The popular illusion that

They owned people

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He came up to her at an event

And said, “Ma’am, I want

To dance with you in the worst

Way,” and he did

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They had four children,

Only one of whom survived them

Her life, as you can imagine,

Broke apart

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She outspent the White House

Budget many times

Decorating, socializing

Her husband despaired

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The war over,

A measure of peace

That lasted for more or less

Two days for him, for her

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She was there when

He was killed,

Heard the Latin cursing

Of the actor turned assassin

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She lived a while longer

Seated beside her life that

Never happened

She remains in Springfield

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She is a shadow person

Loyal, if distracted

She lived the status

And now claims a legacy

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C L Couch

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Mary Todd Lincoln with the “ghost” of her husband, in an image taken by spirit photographer William H. Mumler. Mumler’s photos are now considered hoaxes.

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20276887

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The Haunted Man

(x = space)

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The Haunted Man

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It’s Lincoln’s birthday

Kind of a palindromic date

This year

(twos and ones)

He was born the way

I learned in school

And reading Classics Illustrated comics

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There was a three-sided house

He was named for his grandfather

He studied by the fire

And later used his height

For playing pranks

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He failed at most everything

Took part in debates

Got elected enough

To be elected for a final thing

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He was from Kentucky

Then Illinois

Then Washington,

The District of Columbia

Where he died

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His remains are buried back

In Springfield, I believe

And in the dust of bones

And blood

The ashes of war

Inside every part

Of the nation

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C L Couch

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Alexander Gardner – Library of Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25238743

Lincoln in February 1865, two months before his death

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1

tandem

(x = space)

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tandem

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if I count all the noise

I am depressed

at least disappointed

I like the noise of living:

children (not always)

dogs, pans squabbling

even the noise of

passing cars and the diesel

of the bus

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but the anchorite

would like some quiet

in the cell from time to time

to think and feel through

insight

and the soul

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and who quiets the noise inside

I am not sure

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I try it on my own,

and only impulse closes over

wakeful everything

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I ask,

maybe will receive

not a holy schedule

but a sacrosanct surprise

that the Earth is

made quiet through

a tandem try

so we both may dream

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c l couch

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photo by Adolfo Félix on Unsplash

bike for two

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The Loft

(x = space)

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The Loft

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If quiet into night

I send a word or two words

Or more

Through breath,

Then you might hear me

So that we might turn, at last,

Toward each other

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I’d say all prayers are done

Except the kind that praise

And ask for nothing else

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C L Couch

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湖州市, 湖州市, 中国

Night View Mountain

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Gumball Machine

(x = space)

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Gumball Machine

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Sometimes

Often, maybe

We wish for dispensers

Push a coin into a

Machine that has moving parts

But no electricity

And no computer parts

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And receive

Something colorful and wonderful

Call it sweet

(call it sugar)

Call it grace

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Grace for a quarter

(I know, it might have been

a penny)

Or something else

Dispensed

To save us for

A little while

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A coin for a bit of doctrine

Except it might be heresy

Grace for a coin?

That is a coin too much

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C L Couch

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by Strange from CA, Japan – bubbleGum!, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3232931

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