some poems about caughtness (made-up word)

[1]

1 thing I hate about you

love
habits of love
hate
scorn
or scorn is an act of hate
if venial more than mortal

we could do all kinds
and
degrees of things
as we can do them
as we have
will
and how it’s worked upon day by day
already

but things we choose from
inside out
at least

there is discretion in thee
somewhere
even
in repression
say
when there’s a breaking out

and if
free
to decide

how much to hate
once
relief subsides

how open to be generally
to life
all kinds and all degrees

[2]

up and away

better
away from the crowd
to encounter people singly
or
in small numbers

better away
when
in the midst is too uncomfortable
to feel

the time away
like the Superfolk in their fortress

time to regroup
or
simply look another way
through the instruments of
us
by which to measure
how
is Earth
and what’s our part

so away might be the reason
to go back
to
Metropolis or Smallville
with or without
cape
or in another suit
a utility belt

we are our own
and
we don’t determine heroes
but
we do choose service
even
sacrifice
to come when things are bad
when
criminality tries to be super
too

[3]

the castle

but when things are bad
don’t we want
company
as
presence without severity or
degree

to know there are others who agree
or don’t agree
but
whose chief aim and end
is
to live around
and pay attention to you
or
when they can’t for what’s going on with
them
and so
it is our part
to encourage and by existence
to support

so we become columns
to each
other
the house
or a smattering of homes come close
to become
a citadel

[4]

stuckpoint

and I’m pent up
and
it’s my fault
though not all of it

cold world
gets into joints
for
metaphor

we don’t want
to move
anyway
that is in any
way

no
certainty
and not feeling limber meaning
free

so what now
a pillar
of
forgetfulness that knew once
how
to support oneself and someone else
and also how
to move toward
either

well
will come the time
even when wanting to be
retired
in that state for a while
longer

to step or
jitter in some way to try
for
service all around

to serve the day
and all
the denizens

if
not yet like
or toward
a happy ending

(title-term made up by someone else)

[30]

c l couch

[art]

photo by Mr. Bochelly on Unsplash
Mont Saint-Michel