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Christmas 1

(x = space)

x

x

Christmas 1

x

It’s Christmas day

What shall we say

But that the world

Is old and tired

And ornery

And peace taken

For an illusion

Some might enjoy

Invented

Only on the inside

Then a webinar

With fees

x

Here,

The sun is out

The temperature has climbed

Into two digits

There are icicles on the screen

Outside the casement

Of the window

Church is on line

Not only hundreds of miles away

But the consequence of heart disease

Is to stay

When the weather is extreme

Either way

And to deal with low energy

As in

It takes me forever

To do anything

x

And did Christ come today

Christ comes

Every day

x

And in a good way

I don’t care if

It was December 25

Or the ides of March

Something happened

The child of God was born

The child is also God

Was born

x

Is there meaning

In the other ways?

Of course,

There is

These seek the truth as well

And we should

Be

Should be

With them

x

Christmas is cultural

I’m at church

Hearing the songs

Hearing about the welcome

Of Ukrainians

Here

And I am glad

x

It isn’t peace on Earth

Only in

Such a small portion

Of the whole

x

And shall we say

Jesus was born?

I think we should

It’s history

x

Then in a supernal way

Maybe the spirit’s born again

In loving refugees

And loving refugees

Maybe there were times

When mortal Jesus

Felt outcast

Alone on Earth

As and why he walked away

From time to time,

Once

Prayed in the garden

x

You know,

We may take up

Exegesis

And

Evangelism

Later

And may I pause midstream

Like the saint to say

To the child Jesus

(I to you

and I a mortal child),

x

Merry Christmas

And for twelve days

That make

This varied

Still hopeful

Hopeful, still

Yes, brief

Season

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Robert Kalinagil on Unsplash

x

0

Escape Room

(x = space)

x

x

Escape Room

x

Once again

For Passover,

Too many now

Are refugees

Fleeing Pharaohnic tyranny

Fear from explosions

Falling walls

Broken bodies

Family annihilation

Other countries take them

Sacred and secular

The people

The new homes

More than Jews in Ukraine

More people leaving

Refugees from Syria

Those who are “repatriated”

(strategic term)

From island nations

To the south

Those who want to leave for life

From Mexico,

Parts of Central America

And when there’s disaster,

We flee from parts

Of our land as well

x

Passover

For so many, many now

Might the angel of death

Give leave

For space and means

For victims

For escape

Blood on the lintels

Before leaving

Death for the victimizers

As angels

As an agency of God

See fit

x

Passover

For Jews in Ukraine

Jews in Israel

And everywhere

Good people have to run

For life

x

C L Couch

x

x

For Jews fleeing Ukraine, Passover takes on new meaning

“Good morning! Happy morning!” Rabbi Avraham Wolff exclaimed, with a big smile, as he walked into the Chabad synagogue in Odesa on a recent morning. Russian missiles had just struck an oil refinery in . . .

x

Photo by Vitamina Poleznova on Unsplash

x

5

Romeros

Romeros

(the caravan in Tijuana)

 

Pilgrims all

Seeking a thanksgiving

For food

For safety for the family

A chance to work

(work hard)

A chance not to hurt, sicken, and die

So easily

At home

 

Pilgrims for

Thanksgiving

Imagine that

 

They have come so far

Probably, we won’t respect that

What they went through to

Be so near

 

Will we let them in

 

From a land of light

Waiting in the dark

From a land in darkness

Waiting for the light

 

Will we let them in

Will we let us in

 

C L Couch

 

 

By IDS.photos from Tiverton, UK – Door to private chapel, Vicars Close, Wells, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25739058

 

1

UNICEF: Half of All Refugees Are Children

UNICEF: Half of All Refugees Are Children

(headline for news story of the fact)

 

E stands for emergency

F for fund

 

And the C—well, that’s

For the halves of us

 

Our own,

Who deserve innocence

In which to incubate

 

Play and siblings whole

On learning rolls

 

Harmed only through

Mischief cared for

In embracing arms

 

Rob these ones of life

When you die

They will inherit

And make a world

As hate-able

As they find

 

When we treat them

 

And on

the altars

of the world

 

 

UNICEF: Half of All Refugees Are Children

6

Refuge

Refuge

(listening to public radio)

 

A man is interviewed

Via translation

 

I lost my daughter in

The explosion

 

Here is a picture of her

There are two;

 

She was twin to the

Daughter I still have

 

Paper riffles, passing

The photograph back

And forth

 

Her mother is gone, too

 

He does not say his

Wife

 

I wonder if he says

 

“Mother” instead,

Because this is

 

The relationship that

Must matter now

 

The mother of his

Living daughter died,

 

And he must see to

That for her

 

Or is it that he cannot

Bring himself to say

Again, my wife

5

World on Fire

World on Fire

 

Several states in USA

Bear fire uncontrolled;

 

Persons have died—

Rampant destruction

Unrolls.

 

UN and news services

Cite the number at

Sixty-five million who

Are refugees, another

Moving blaze.

 

Venezuelans break

Into stores for food—

Don’t tell me poverty

 

And want do not burn,

For they are always

Afire.

 

Politics burns as well,

Violence in discourse:

 

No civility here, thank

You—we’d rather talk

Through bared teeth;

 

Unseasoned anger is

A flame as well.

 

In extinguishing the

Fires, cooling help that

Even overwhelms

Then washes is virally

Needed to calm soon-

to-be charred, hollow

Hearts:

 

Water of

 

Hope, strength for the

Mind with all our literal

Muscle that can

 

Rescue a planet and keep

It safe, even joyful in a

Future (how about later

Today?)

 

Dewy and thankfully

Damp day.

7

Toll-Taking

Toll-Taking

 

Death at UCLA, teacher

And then shooter, then

 

Spouse found, murdered

Before

 

Death-number increases

Of soldiers lost to flood

At Fort Hood in Texas

 

Migrants’ lives lost

Beyond counting, since

Too many die unknown

 

In Mediterranean waters

Or on western Asian

Battlefields

 

Nigerian school children

Lives erased, such is the

The plan of those who

Took them

 

And these are in the

Process of becoming old

Well-worn news, such is

Our way

 

Though beyond blame

Is the stress of bearing

Our world, a planet of

Dying

 

And of sorrow

 

Atlas shrugged, the novel

Claims?  Atlas should

Have wept

 

Charon demands gold

For passage, though the

Real currency is life

8

Here’s News (and a Haibun)

Here’s News (and a Haibun)

 

(1)

 

Here are three news leads from The Guardian:

The United Nations has for the first time signalled its “human rights obligation” over the deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti that has claimed the lives of at least 30,000 people.

‘It’s only working for the white kids’: American soccer’s diversity problem [headline]

Yesterday, a report came out that said more than 1,000 migrants and refugees have died just in the last week while crossing the Mediterranean.

 

(2)

 

Everyone on all sides of things is falling down.  UN peacekeeping.  Soccer, the world’s sport.  Migrants we don’t count who die.  Doesn’t help my own precarious feelings about stability or sanity in the world.  Doesn’t help the fragility in me or mine.  On this side of apocalypse (only frightening for some), what might we save?  In order to retain poetics, I’ve refrained from news of politics today.  I doubt anymore the answer’s there.

 

(3)

 

Black box of the plane

Black box of refugee’s boat

Black box of sea’s depths

4

First Words Depending on Where Refugees Arrive

(response to Denmark’s new law)

 

First Words Depending on Where Refugees Arrive

Welcome to our nation
Give us everything you have

Welcome to our nation
We need to assay all you own

Welcome to our nation
How will you contribute?

Welcome to our nation
We have to screen you first

Welcome to your nation
Let’s get you settled here

4

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