typewriter

(x = space)

machine time

repeating numbers

for today

ones and twos

the sun is shining

angled beneath

clouds

mist that has risen

and such

above it could be blue

and then the black of space

with all our trash

and earnest vehicles

in orbit

look down

and there’s the floor

to the left

is cooling coffee

right in front

is this machine

with a screen that challenges

endurance

still so much easier to use

than typing through

a master’s degree

on Olympia, Corona,

and my sanity

remember paper?

that’s what we used

for turning in assignments

before the imposition

of electrons

paper, sticky stamps

other adhesives

it was a world, then,

that we could touch and hold

and know we’ve used

c l couch

photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Snoopyism

Take out the “stormy” part,

And “It was a dark night”

As most nights are,

When it happened to rain

Snoopy went for this

(the words appear above

his doghouse, when

he’s typing—how does

the typewriter stay perched

along the top

like that?)

But the words were borrowed

From other sources (more

than one writer claims

the cliché!), and we

Smiled, because we were certain

We could do better

It was night; there was rain

Okay, now your turn

C L Couch

(see, Snoopy is a beagle character in the Peanuts comics and cartoons, and Snoopy like to write while on top of his doghouse (Snoopy’s always on top, not in, his doghouse), and the famous words he quotes are “It was a dark and stormy night” that have been used now and then by writers who evidently had nothing else to say

and I keep forgetting that Madeleine L’Engle uses the phrase intentionally (knowing it was cliché) to start her novel A Wrinkle in Time)

Photo by Grant Durr on Unsplash