Undeferment
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
“Harlem,” Langston Hughes
I am poor
I guess
I have the words
And some temerity
(rubbed
with facts)
To say
And I wonder
If the poor
Can dream or
May
Because dreams require
Some funding
To live as vision
And idea
In the daytime
Or
After sleep whenever
Some apparatus
Finally
That might build something
Even with reason
And approval
Yet
After food
That is
And safe water
Shelter
And compulsory education
Voting
And some will say
We shouldn’t
Dream
Citing something like
Chains of being
Or in spirit
Shall have a realm
Not here
For sure
Rather
Then
To pass a rule to take
Those dreams
Our dreams
Away
Citing
Some might say
The classes as distinctions
Though we have only made them
Out of balsam
And so not in the realm
Of real
Lasting places
But only signs to keep
The oligarchy ready
And plutarchy
As well
Because
Oppression manufactured
By the way
Has begged our revolutions
But peace
Better ideas
Should prevail
From all
Of us
And all of us allowed
The dream
To have it
Work it
And to play
With
Only barricades
That any might encounter
While
Waking
So we may all
Dream dreams
Asleep
Alert
Without deferment
C L Couch
“’In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy . . .”
Peter talking to a crowd, citing Joel
Acts 2:17(a)
NIV
Photo by Kostiantyn Li on Unsplash
(x = space)
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The Impoverished
x
It is another day
To wake up into misery
Sometimes a vivid
Dream
Takes me to
A place that is not
So spectacular but
I want to live there
And I wake up
And I’m here
I wake to the gray skies
Of war
Or my child is
Still sick
Or my child is gone
My children
x
There is my own pathology
It hurts
And there is no promise
Of change for the better
x
I wake into many
Who have problems
And they seep
Or crash into awareness
I have no money
Or my clothes are poor
My shoes don’t wrap around
My feet
So I have trouble moving
And I’m seen first
For the problems that I have
x
I’m seen first
For the problems that I have
That’s how my friends know me
Or my family
Or anyone
First, I am the sad one
Or the needy one
The one with problems
I am an individual
Also a family
Or a nation
I grow to hate waking up
Like this
I grow to hate waking up
Can someone make
The day better?
Can I?
x
A song could name this
But is no breath
For singing
There is no cause
Or there is
And I forget
It’s been too long
x
I could say, Help me
But I don’t know how
Sometimes it’s
Antagonistic
The responses that I get
When I used to ask
Mostly it’s apathy
With closed pockets
I never get close to,
Which is fine
I don’t want your pockets
I want my own
x
I want what I used to have
Or maybe never had
I want what I need
And a little more
So I am ready
When I hear of
Need
Someone
A family
Or a nation
x
To give out of what I have
And a little more
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash
The Other Way
published 2 hours ago
x
(x = space)
x
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For the People
x
We give billions
Might I have a smidgen
Might we all and each
Have a smidgen
Two smidgens, maybe
Our money from our coffers
Save other nations’ people,
Too
It’s mid-month and I’m feeling
Especially impoverished
It’s the thirteenth
On a Friday
And I’m tired of
Anything like
The curse of the day
Or Cain
The penury of Lazarus
Under Dives
I know, L gets to heaven
Where it’s wealthy
Without coin
And through and through
But I’m still here today
And want to be,
Not knowing the other
x
I’d like to have
Some easy days
If possible
Summertime
As Gershwin says
As she sings
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by David Sutton on Unsplash
x
Campaign
Life is important
Though we contract on its importance
With agreements tissue-thin
On paper we’ve polluted
For nation-states that richer folk
Have hollowed out
What is left but
Value that has no protection
Words in a chamber without power
Charged with nothing but
Intention and
Words for marketing
How then are the poor protected
But they’re not
Maybe we live today
Maybe we don’t get the chance
Because the opportunity
Created in creation
Was stolen long ago
And we are left as shells
Abandoned by inhabitants
Left to dry on beaches
Away from water
The poor you will have with you
Is not an excuse for
Resignation
Lack of action
Real food to go with
Living water
And who is the poor
But all of us connected
To judge by what we take at last
You are impoverished
So am I
Everyone
Not one escapes
We’re all the same
As we’re all unique
No one person gets it all
That’s delusion
(you know that)
We share what we have
And leave more for the future
That’s a planet
Worthy to explore
Worthy to make contact
With beings, angels, and God
Of the universe
C L Couch
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
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