the day you were born

according to the calendar
and I’ve checked
it more
than once
I was a Thursday child
and so had far
to go

which is a mystery at
least
to me

for
don’t we all have far to go
to get somewhere
in life and maybe
afterlife

in face
that after this is done
does not the distance unfold
grandly
for each one
and
all

so what is far to go
maybe
far to go for satisfaction
for fullness
in breathing and work
(the
work of breathing)
or
maybe for
philosophy to gain and so to carry
through
the trials of thought and feeling
faced in the world

wondrous
fallen

virtuous
Calvinistically depraved

pursuit beyond a declaration
for a nation
or
to help secure it for others
affirm at least when
despotry breaks in
then
attempting to persist

so maybe it is
freedom
and the distance we all have to go
in
service to others
and ourselves
in that

somewhere is far to go
at any rate
metaphor for what’s ahead
and
an assurance that little will happen toward
instant completion


loving and giving

for
Friday’s child
so says
the rhyme

loving and giving as if
starting qualities and to
sustain through
live
and to go for everything that’s needed
to keep going in this way
through
all the time and all phenomena
that happen

requiring
a bounty
I should think of
faith
and confidence
to have the wherewithal for these

and to secure the job
that funds the giving
and
might fortify the loving

so
where should Friday be if not
in a good place and
with resources
all
the time

so who loves and gives in Ukraine
just now or
Gaza
or pick a torn-up
place where one is likely to lose all
and
have to flee
get wounds bound up
also
to deal with loss of health
and companionship
of
family

as well as neighborhood and one’s identity
not only of the circles as
they Venn
but of the single
self
that comes at the beginning and then
knows the joining with the rest

somehow
I think
Bonhoeffer
managed loving and giving through
the rise
the war
the horrors
and the sacrifice of
life

like the prayer of thanks
not
to be a guard
and more so for the pastor’s life
to give it
in the camp so that another
person
live

and so the living and the giving
the worst in the world
plus
the best in spirit

and so
in surfeit or in want
the capacities
for each to
live
as Friday


c l couch


Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was imprisoned and killed in World War 2


photograph by Jon Tyson at Unsplash
VIA SACRA