Well and Good
(ironic)

Oh
God
I haven’t thought
So much of you today
Weighed
Down
By my perceptions
The license that I give to stress
And even honest pain that
Doesn’t ask
For this

Forgive me
I guess
Though I’ll be doing it
Again
And
Venial or mortal
I typically can’t
Tell

So that confession
Is not a bust
Though I’m sure
A disappointment

Sigh
What shall I do
To be a servant and
Myself
To serve another
Too

And to serve you
I know
Which should be
First

Sigh again
This might be a loop
If not a cycle of
Post-Edenic rebellion
Which
We set up
As it were
At the start

But is my nature
Always enough
To explain
While I have will
As we always have discretion
Even difficult
In the moment

But I’m sorry
And I’ve thought of you
For seconds
Now
Such a big deal

And should I wake up
In my anchorite cell
Even with a car
For company
A holy cat
By its own calling
Once retrieved

The gray stone
With a specific symbol
On the wall
And a few pages
By the bed
Made out of
Nature
Meaning
Natural things

To know that I’m devout
And here to serve
The people of today
In a world
That maybe strives to rise
Or to wallow
Though I must
Keep the vision
For all of us
That may
Allow ourselves to rise

Maybe through the window
And the windowed world
I have
To look out on the other
To wait
For the inevitable
And then to wait
As in to serve
Responding to their need
And how they
How you
Say it

Then all should know
And you may know
At last
That I am with
All the time
By my own will
My time and style

Though here I am
For now
Small-town
Me for now
With all my errant loves
And wish
I could
Do better
Though for lack of djinn
And also resolution
Remains a wish
Among wishes
For faith
Or for a pony

(again
sorry
and amen)

C L Couch


Photo by José Alejandro Cuffia on Unsplash 
(psst, we’re busting out of here tonight—my caption, sorry

and in part of the poem-prayer I’m channeling Saint Julian)