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“Adversity, Misfortune”

“Adversity, Misfortune”
(written with all urgency)

Is what it means
Malheur (thanks to
Collins), and there is
A certain story about
That (Mister Thurber,
You can look it up)

But the story that is
Written now can
Only add to the
First meaning

Set fire? No
Imprison any longer?
No
Militia? We have
The National Guard
(I know, national)

Grace, which translates
Closely all around,
Needs abounding here

Not perched in a
Distant tree, an
Observation pillar,
Waiting to return
To normal life

Not to blame the bird
The bird is natural,
Even as a metaphor

Grace is better
It takes “mal-heur”
To render it “bon-temps”
(Sorry if I slaughter French
A language I enjoy)

I am of Northwest
I am in Oregon (check
The names)

My grandfather built
Refuges like
Malheur (though I’d
Like to think he’d have
Checked the name)

All are right in this
All are wrong
Everyone back up
And change the stakes

Then everyone not further
Newly charged (please, no)
In need-corrected wrong

Everyone
Go
And be home

C L Couch
January 2016

0

Ishi

Ishi

she is the last
one in her family
a hermit in Siberia
rescued recently

they were religious
they fled the Soviets
(one could name another
group when it oppresses
or suppresses) and
she is the last

when she is gone
from earth
only her story will remain

another ghost of Ishi for
she is the last

2

Civilizing Shoes

Civilizing Shoes

I’ve been wearing slippers now
As I’ve trod through my place
In part, because of the season
In part, because it is a more
Civilized way to live

When I think of wearing shoes,
I think of Huckleberry Finn
Who, when made to lace- or
Buckle-up the things, felt
The fastenings had trapped
Him in a binding and controlling
World and, eventually, he
Must, you know, light out for
The territories

(USA doesn’t have official
Territories anymore, at least in
The lower forty-eight; I guess
Huck would have to go to
Northern Canada, nowadays)

It is the smaller of things
For the rest of my life remains
Unplanned, in piles, and
Unscheduled—it’s still wild
In there

And, for all I know, when summer
Returns to the US Northeast, I
Might simply have to abandon
The slippers again

To live again more Huckleberry-like
More hobbit-like
And, most likely, more like me

0

Something

Something

If I don’t do something
I shall do nothing,
So I try
To do this much

What is this much?
Not my writing it
But your reading it
And our responding through;

Anything that might come
During or after

Means I am doing something
(For) we are doing something

12

Ciara

Ciara

From the news, I wanted to get
The hometown right
Of the murdered girl

The search yielded a
Thoughtful, pretty image
Of the twelve-year-old

I’ll take it down, but for now
I fear to remove her from the
Screen—

As if saying good-bye
This way

Will make death, already decided,
Somehow more deeply

Done

0

Vaccines

Vaccines
(a polio center bombed in
Pakistan, because of
serving)

I lived in the cities where
Salk and Sabin worked
Which does not matter
As much as the reality of
Vaccines

Diphtheria, polio, small
Pox, and malaria;
Millions—millions—died
From Spanish Flu in
The last (twentieth)
Century

These diseases are now
Resolved and most are gone
With vaccines and other
Helps except for those
Ravages that were not
Cured except through time,
For we hadn’t means to
Cure

We still look at this
Challenge, though it
Seems we’re getting
Better

I don’t know how those
Against vaccination really
Feel, maybe because I’ve
Only experienced the
Good

I’ve had mild symptoms
Of that for which I’ve
Been given shots—that’s
In the nature of vaccines—but
I’ve not suffered fully from
Diseases or conditions
Against which I’m
Protected

Now, due to a condition (not
Vaccine-related), I’m toward
The top of the list of those
Who should receive flu
Shots

Any reservations
Notwithstanding, I get the
Shot

Those who refuse risk
Infecting others, though
I respect the hesitation
If I cannot ally the
Principle

Yet those who turn down
And those who protest this
Medical opportunity are
Not bombing doctors’ offices
Or clinics where these
Serve

Though, I must say, that in
This free land, some
Take issues to extremes
To destroy clinics of
Another medical kind thus
Surrender being human in
Becoming the extreme and little
More

But on a day in Pakistan
I’ve read further in the news
About

Bombing a polio clinic
Addressing a disease that
Can be veritably
Eradicated

If this terroristic vision
(An irony of shots)
Could be realized, then there
Would be outbreaks of laming
And of crippling infection
Without recourse except
The best (the worst) of
Luck

When we can cure, we
Are at our best;
What can be said for
Those who hunt down
All those who can and
Now must more bravely
Cure

3

History of Terrorism

History of Terrorism
(after bombings in Istanbul,
killing ten so far, wounding fifteen)

“What impresses your most about terrorists?”
“Their hundred-percent failure.”

I heard something like this in a television
Show, well-written show, an episode
First broadcast in the wake of 911

Now we have murder in Istanbul by a
Suicide bomber, so it appears, maybe in
Fearful avenging Turkish strikes against IS

Is ISIS going to have a state? Will the world
Allow that? Explosions, shootings,
Destroying lives with bodies strapped

With bombs: do these all realize such
A difference? Only in wasting, it seems—in
Exploitation and in scorn and in the
World’s resolve to stand together and against

Not a rising storm but rather in a lower
Continuity of tries at terror and of terror
Acts filled with, terribly and finally—you

Know, Macbeth’s signifying sound and fury

4

Us Icarus (inspired by Jacki Kellum)

Us Icarus

Oops Icarus,
An all-too-fine conviction
Of the troubled ones who
Try too high to fly
And those of us who
Thus fall

I wonder if it helps
That the parent in the
Mythic flight is older
And designer
Of the task ahead

If we learn to fly
Study something of
The design and
Making
Of the wings

Might our take-off
End in a landing that
Makes our flying
Success as well as
Joy

C L Couch
(inspired by Jacki Kellum’s compelling thoughts on balance, https://jackikellum.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/a-case-for-balance-recalling-the-myth-of-icarus-and-daedalus/)

5

What I Feared

(North Korea wants an H-bomb–why, I do not know)

What I Feared

What I feared was
Looking up into the sky
Where the blue became white

And out of parallel lines
That could be clouds or
Contrails, something silver
Falls

And everything becomes white
And I am gone with everyone
And everything I know.

Or, worse, that I live
To face oncoming nuclear winter.

My fears, while a child living
In an early nuclear age in a
War that was too cold.

4

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