listening up
God be with us
daytime
into night and as the hours pass
the arrival
of the twenty-sixth
still August
still serving the vanity of
Augustus
and
these were gods in Rome
and you are God
everywhere
in every age
not
wanting to disrespect
but really
it is you
one God who made all of Earth
and Earths
yet
remain yourself
the same
the one
who I think will talk with us more
as we prepare
to listen
more than ears
a little theory
mostly
practice
c l couch
photo by Jan Sents on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Partly inspired by “There Will Come Soft Rains,” a chapter in The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. This part of the story speaks to what is left of us. The chapter’s sad. Nonetheless I often think upon it.
x
x
Sci-Fied
x
Should the bombs fall
And I am atomized
And you
And the insects shall find
Nourishment
Not through flesh
(I’m atomized
so are you)
But through bits of trash
I had not the time
To take our back
x
And shall the Earth survive
To have another age
x
I remember
In the days of Strontium
We said we could
Destroy the planet’s crust
And so leave
The molten mass
The could heave
Or be
Settled down
x
Nostalgia
For a future guess
x
The Earth might have
Its own
As it once held us
There could be bees
And flowers for the bees
Or something
For pollen
So that something could
Pollenate
And there be land
With flora
Feeding
And softening
What’s left of our platforms
For another age
Of Earth
x
Arthropodic
Or could it be with feathers
Things that move
And have their being
Avoiding shadows
Form which
There used to be
Something in charge
Though now
The lesson’s different
This time
The arthropods
And feathered things
Have sentience
And speak gospel
x
While the Earth
In its own way
We never got
Though it was there
Shall smile
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash
x
Imaginaria
(insight, sci-fi, speculation)
x
x
Machine Life
x
Ain’t devices grand
Until they’re not
And how long is
A generation, anyway
Things work
They slow down
There is no message
Though the problems could be
Indications as they are
In old age
The old age of us,
That is
x
Machine life
Oxymoron
Maybe
Maybe with A-I for real
The opposite are nearer
To the same thing
In us all
Man and machine
They (ubiquitous) used to say
But let the women try
All shall be well
As a woman said
x
x
note
x
Saint Julian of Norwich
(we ubiquitous do not know her name—maybe her cat sussed it through any sublimation)
x
x
Visitors
x
They landed
And found a plethora
Of DNA
On our machines
On the insides
Even blood
Inside
Who were these people, then,
Was soon discovered
Helixes reconstructed
And their features
And their colors
And the shapes of
So many of them
x
The machines they talk to
And brought them here
In fact
Shall interpret
And reconstitute
Everything
Planetside
As well as
From the things in orbit
That have been falling
While a few remain
For boarding
Or retrieval
x
This was a race
Or races
Many kinds of one race
They covered themselves
For the atmospheres
And seasons
Up to four of these
It seems
They were preventive
Though mostly reactive,
Waiting for a crisis
Then responding
x
There might have been those
(translating documents
reshaping the shaping
of their flesh
and all the things they made
for prosperity
or expression)
Who tried in sciences
And arts
To say something
Warn them about
How to live
And what might be coming
x
Well,
Library these
Revive some as we can
Or may
They had the rudiments
A-I and androids
We can work off of these
As templates
The name
Many references to ground
And we have encountered
Worlds named water,
Fire, and air
Smoke and fog
Pollution
And clarity
x
x
Prophecy
x
Three kinds
I was taught this
I’ve thought about it
(these)
Maybe I’ve done some
Merging
On the inside
All about it, too
x
There is the kind
That foretells the future,
Which is the kind
We think about
The most
It seems
x
There is the kind
That foretells the present
That tells the monarchs
There is invasion
Here
Or a great fire there
x
Then there is the kind
That interprets
The present
With insight
And a voice
That can serve the queen
And should they arrange it
Assist today’s administration
Well
And overall
Overall
And well
x
But then prophets
Often get into trouble
Even in democracies
Who are they
Why should we listen
Are they saying
What we want
To hear
Is prosperity promised
And God’s approval
Because God is in our side
Because
We say so
x
Go to the launchpads
Go to the modern museums
Enjoy
Be warned
Grow
Live better
x
As for disagreements
Or outraged
If not ignorant
(usually ignorant)
Confusion
Well,
Weather that
And try not to burn
The saints
x
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Nathan Duck on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
One Morning, Late
x
Dry life
No humours
Those fluids that fill
The body
No mercurial
Or saturnine
Temperaments
No temperaments at all
I’m not sure what happened
Overnight
Something
That has dessicated everything
A sponge of dreams
The drying-out of nightmares
The medication measured out
And gone away
Over the hours
The pores remain
So that breathing
With the world is possible
x
A dried-out life
Like the old painting on the wall
Cracks in moving
Brittle breathing
It started on the inside
And meets up with
The magma as it’s cooling
Under Earth
x
How does it feel?
How do you feel?
It happens everywhere
In the expanding universe
That also ages
x
Time for
Childhood’s end
For God to lift us to
The next step on the ladder
The next step
On the stairway
Call it providence
Call if evolution
Call it providential evolution
Childhood’s end
Time to rise
To go up
x
The attic
Of creation waits
When we’re all gathered,
The roof comes off
Our house
x
C L Couch
x
x
Childhood’s End is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke.
x
Triangulum Galaxy
Photo by Guillermo Ferla on Unsplash
x
clcouch123 
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