the promises
I will not die
and in faith
not have that the ending
I guess that’s the biggest one
promise
of promises
there are others
more earthbound
the oaths
we take as families
and citizens
before the flag in school
the vows
that in infant baptism
the parents with the church say for us
and we break these
even with guns sometimes
to emphasize
the bloodiness
in going rogue
against what had been promised first
thank goodness for
that first one and
we need it
a promise of a heaven
when the world has failed us
as it is bound to
and what we resort
to but remembrance of
that first thing
that was its claim
that became its oath
it’s good
the one from the beginning
slipped inside our code to be opened
at the last
I’m not sure there’s more to say
hang on
when it’s impossible
to change
yet work at change
there’s a promise in working today
that’s not so bad
for we are
loved from here into the next
c l couch
photo by Prashant on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
take away the confessional and informative emendations and there’s one poem here with endings like certain music selections
x
Processionals
x
I think
Often of David
Of a picture
I have seen
Or made up
It’s when the ark
Is brought into
Jerusalem
And it’s a triumph
A kind of victory
x
And I think of David
Young
(and was he young)
Dancing
Before the ark
Not wearing much
But he’s king
And he arranged all this
And so
The instruments
Let play
And maybe favorites
Follow suit
x
I see light colors
As if this were a desert scene
Done as a picture
With pastels
You know
I think I figure the hair
On David
From the statue by
Michelangelo
x
Processions are important
He and they
Had to have one
Because the ark
Would have a home
Forever
Well
At least for generations
(I should
look this up
it might be before
Absalom)
But what do we know
Today is forever
And the
Ark is here
x
And Jesus came
Into Jerusalem
And a procession
Was needed
And so it was
Arranged
In humility
And somehow awesome
Awful majesty
x
C L Couch
x
x
I worked on this scene before as a draft; I have in mind I didn’t finish it, and this time I did; but if the other work appeared and I forgot, then I apologize for the repetition—CLC
x
and a bit more (for free)
x
a coda
x
David was a shepherd
He was a king
He was loved by God
As either
So are you
Loved by God
For either
Any
Way
x
Photo by Alberico Bartoccini on Unsplash
x
(and here’s the lesson should you need one
coda 2
that was D. S.
this is D. C.)
x
Jesus came
Into Jerusalem
Like the ark
Meaning a triumph
Victory
For a home people
Battling
To keep a promise
x
And like the ark
Is lost
Defeat
And sacrifice
Through lack of faith
(bad kings—you may
look it up)
And so sacrilege
And a new needed
Promise
Follows
(read the prophets)
For restoration
Of the people
x
Turns out
It’s Israel
And all of us
Redeemed
Through this
Second coming
Triumph
Then sacrifice
This time as well
And
Cosmically speaking
Greater
All the world
And how far out
On the edge
x
With destruction
Turned to joy
With all our flaws intact
Until a final resurrection
That will keep
Us and the world
Intact
And better
And forever
x
Stone not only
Rolled away
But smashed
Here endeth
And look
And listen
Smell
And taste
And touch
This is the start
And we might think we do
But we don’t know
What’s next
x
Tontines
If there is a God
And sorry if there’s not
(there is—
there, you have the ending
of the story)
Then I wish God to do
A better job of it
For all the dreadful things
That happen
Not to me
(though, yes, there’s that)
But to all the people
Who are burned in fire
Felled into the earth
Killed because smooth steel
And lead pellets seemed
Good inventions at the time
And since
(we can beat them all down
anytime, pleading a case for
ploughshares)
God, can you not stop
All the measures that hide empire
Except where vanity
Vaingloriousness
Must break through
The offices and the meeting rooms
Sending, allowing
Hurt into the battlefields?
Naturally and practically, you can
Though there is that stone so
Heavy that you cannot lift
You made it out of will
And set it spinning
42, the Earth
It is a kind of comedy
The classic kind, pray please
In which through funny means
(grim humor in grim times)
The community is healed
Better than restored,
Renewed
And we have a forest for a world
Near the city of perfection
Feasts, cominglings, promises
Of weddings
‘Round fires tamed by angels
The marriage of harrowed hell
And heaven
New heaven partners with
New world, finally the right kind:
Just
And which
To mitigate with love
C L Couch
Photo by Richard Cordones on Unsplash
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Looking Forward
By Halves
When we are revealed
In diaspora
When we are outcast
Of Earth
When all we have is gone
Used up to stay alive
When there is nothing more than
Scant hope, threadbare-blown
Then we might turn to each other
In remembrance
Of promises we never
Broached
Wishing we could know each
Other now
C L Couch
File:Wstega macha.png – Wikimedia Commons
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