Giftings
So let’s
Discover
On the Thursday
Between first and second
Cups of coffee
Near Main
And Walnut
By
The way
With a light changing
From emerald to ruby
Via amber
You know
Through the day and night
What is it
That we want
And shall we have it
I don’t know
What do you want
And may I help you
With that
Do you want something intimate
In which case
I do not know
But if it’s thinking
Over
Something
Which can be intimate
I think
I could help you
By listening
To begin with
And you might find
That’s all you need
Of me
It’s a cheat
I know
Over electronic distance
Though I did not
Invent the thing that both
Makes things possible
And
Gets in the way
Let’s do the best we can
With what we have
And it might be Friday
Where you are
Or maybe finishing the last hour
Of Wednesday
Way west
Of here
Even in Oz
Or Valinor
And if you live such myth
Then I shall listen to you
Frankly
For the betterment
Of me
In storyhearing
Storytelling
Then
With those to whom
To say
Don’t stop me
If you’ve heard this
Because you never have
Heard this
C L Couch
Photo by Izuddin Helmi Adnan on Unsplash
Emerald City? No, Kuala Lumpur. Both places, fictive and real, for stories (fictive and real).
(x = space)
x
x
The Tell
x
Another dark day
Good for hiding dust
No doubt the motes are flying, still
Informing the dust bunnies
Where to warren
Why not dust cats or
Dust crocodiles, I do not know
But we may delight
In invisible inhabitants,
All the same
The pixies that our cultures tell us
Do and don’t exist
The magic inside
Each of our stories, especially
Once shared
x
Pull up some chairs, the four of us
Let’s play some cards
And, please, let’s talk
It isn’t tourney play, you know
Let’s show something of
Ourselves besides
The tells
We don’t think we have
x
C L Couch
x
x
photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash
playing cards in a bar-room near Reserve, Louisiana
x
(x = space)
x
x
Laid Up
x
There are stories
There are stories
I’d like to hear one story more
It need not be fantastic
Save for telling of the human will
In wisdom or in folly
In virtue or in vanity
x
What I’m saying is
Make it a human story
Though we might truck with gods,
It seems most days it’s only us
Our gods so far away
Perhaps not to hear,
Maybe not to care
Certainly not
Mortal evidence discloses
To attend our
Perilous half-moments
x
It isn’t this way
God doesn’t have an unmoving face
But tell it to the storm
That seems to bear God’s enmity
In visage
And the promise of
A curse upon our gentler feelings
God is there,
But in the curse of human will
Must relegate our drama
Mostly to ourselves,
According to the action and the lore
The machinery of God
Last act upon the stage
Notwithstanding
x
But I’m sorry,
You weren’t asking for
A negative apology
And I was asking for a story
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Olesia Misty on Unsplash
x
The Tell
In the future, should we have it
We might gather into upper rooms
Keepers of technology
With those of bread
To tell a story of
What was lost, was kept
Not forgetting that we write
New chapters in
Our saga
Rising, falling passages like
Exploration of an ocean
Something like discovery
Reconquest when we call for it
Removing home
There is a center with
A monument to keeping
We gave away so much
Forsaking clarity
We held too closely, crushed it
Everything that was a gift
Finding we had no real talent in
Adding to creation
When there could have been alliances
Finally, nothing’s lost
If it must change again
And we with it
We’ll have what we have
In keeping up with prophecy
Fields we didn’t have to fight. for
Nature in benevolence to share
Partnership with
The ground at last,
The sea and all its colonies
We have a place, if regulated
By our betters whom we knew
And would not recognize
And the better us
In time for staying
And for leaving
C L Couch
Photo by Touann Gatouillat Vergos on Unsplash
On the ice. Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/touann.gv/
clcouch123 
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