After the Day Before
(Holy Saturday 2024)
It must have been terrible
For those in sadness
And in terror
Who forgot
Or forsook
The prophecies were shared with them
The new ways to live
That scandalized
Now turned into fodder
For new charges
And arrests
It must have seemed
That everything was over
One and done
And extraordinary
Story
Abruptly ended
Like a battle
In blood and
Death
And loss or victory
While hades had the victory
And underneath
The devil had to laugh
While all they could
Do
Was peel in hiding heat
Freeze the blood from moving
Every hope
Removed
Left on that trash heap
For a hill
Three deaths
The day before
And now
Did anyone count
Toward
After
Or maybe there was only dust
Thrown on the synapse
Of the mind
Heavy stones upon
Like confession
The heart
C L Couch
Photo by Ian Keefe on Unsplash
(x= space)
x
x
Triduum-ish
x
let’s try it this way
happy trick-or-treating
get chocolate
enjoy night air
and dressing different
as against the veil
ancestors
disguised themselves
as well
x
then enjoy the day
for the saints
the followers of God
who are alive
and acting
faith and charity
all the time
or who must go
in fits and starts
x
then remember
those who are not here
anymore
but as if another veil
draw near to family
so the tradition
goes
with picnics at gravesites
brightly lit for now
while there are conversations
with the dead
in gratitude
for the proximity
x
a kind of triduum
that is
three special days
nothing incumbent or required
(priests would differ)
except that
we should enjoy
we should take part
we should remember
and also
(you know this)
show up in church
or synagogue
or temple
or mosque
or center
some place holy
every now and then
x
boo
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Cortor Media on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
a promise to make do, make better
x
nature will not mind
if we go outside
to kill him on the hill
far enough
away
from the glory
of our temple
and the palace
and the city
x
maybe if we pledge
to clean up the trash after
make the hillside
beautiful
maybe re-purposed for
a cemetery
or something
x
nature will not mind
if we control things
for a while
until
we have what we want
x
God appears
approving of our final plans
which means
our enemies are gone
or prostrate
and we are left standing
everywhere
to rule
from being right
x
pause
x
what’s that
it’s dark
it shouldn’t be
there are noises
above and below the ground that
sound eldritch
even the cries from people
over the sobs
from the few who weep
honestly
x
and now the earth is
split
and through so many places
so that we have to add to burying
xxxxxwe have to fit in
xxxxxmore to till in
xxxxxnail over
xxxxxthen varnish
xxxxxor whitewash
x
nature
we want to be your friend
we only need you for a while
to go along
with a simple execution
over and upon
one of your hills
x
come on
work with us
play
with us
x
we know you like to play
we experience
the seasons change
even through
our
desert places
x
but then
the wilderness will change as well
when paradise is made
because
God is on our side
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Dylan McLeod on Unsplash
x
Penance
(Holy Saturday)
The emptiness of God
There can be such a thing
When God has left
Because we cast God out
What it means to have God slain
All miracles and lessons ended
The company
The miracle of trust
To have the
Lord in body
Hungry, thirst with us
The source of faith in the room
And yet we struggled with
Him in the flesh
Now
Now there’s less than nothing
Fear of arrest, forgotten words
There’s hiding, lack of life
No prophecy unremembered
Is worth all this
C L Couch
Photo by Vincent Erhart on Unsplash
I took that image in a former Romanian salt mine. It was one of the darkest, most surrealistic and impressing place I have ever been. . . . The photo shows the 120 meter high vertical main tunnel.
clcouch123 
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