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Torn Flags for a Second Anniversary

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Torn Flags for a Second Anniversary

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Russia attacks

It’s in the news

The biggest

In two years

And we must say

Two years

x

Maybe he looked out

Upon the anniversary

And said

To generals

Still extant

Finish this

Forgetting that one human will

Is not enough

For playing

God

Not being God

Over the world

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Too big

Too complicated

Too many wills

For one set

Set to prevail

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Campaigns stutter

Exhausted

Of all things

All attacking things

Then sometimes

Pushed the other way

x

What do Russians

Think

And how will we ever know

We should imagine

They’ll all over

As we are

However our side might be

Arranged

As another side

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There is other news

But this is bad

And we forget

Too easily

Though it is human

To hold many things

At the same time

And to serve life

In more

With more

Than one of these

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Serve pleasure

Serve delight

Serve causes

Serve what means something

And what means something

In between

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But Russia has attacked

Pushed itself

Over a cliff

To fall upon Ukraine

With so much

Following collision

Mixed with gravity

Judgment and history

To follow

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Except that now

There’s blood

And everything that’s ruined

Killed in war

Everything stone

And all materials

Destroyed

And how shall it be over

Without being over

Probably

x

But frankly in a worse place

Both shall remain

So much more singly

Than together

Without extraordinary measure

That leaders

Cannot advocate

For now

Though maybe people

Like us people

At last will have a say

So that

Some things might end

The better things

Starting with rebuilding

What might be rebuilt

Mourning

For the loss

That can’t be found

Raised up

By us

Again

x

But raising

Rising

Nonetheless

What we are capable

What we are willful

To build

And have

Upon our lives

What we can manage

Share

Again

Or if need be

(as an impulse

and a pattern)

From the first

A new first

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C L Couch

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Photo by Wolfgang Mennel on Unsplash

Layering of Posters on a Lamppost

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Christmas 1

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Christmas 1

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It’s Christmas day

What shall we say

But that the world

Is old and tired

And ornery

And peace taken

For an illusion

Some might enjoy

Invented

Only on the inside

Then a webinar

With fees

x

Here,

The sun is out

The temperature has climbed

Into two digits

There are icicles on the screen

Outside the casement

Of the window

Church is on line

Not only hundreds of miles away

But the consequence of heart disease

Is to stay

When the weather is extreme

Either way

And to deal with low energy

As in

It takes me forever

To do anything

x

And did Christ come today

Christ comes

Every day

x

And in a good way

I don’t care if

It was December 25

Or the ides of March

Something happened

The child of God was born

The child is also God

Was born

x

Is there meaning

In the other ways?

Of course,

There is

These seek the truth as well

And we should

Be

Should be

With them

x

Christmas is cultural

I’m at church

Hearing the songs

Hearing about the welcome

Of Ukrainians

Here

And I am glad

x

It isn’t peace on Earth

Only in

Such a small portion

Of the whole

x

And shall we say

Jesus was born?

I think we should

It’s history

x

Then in a supernal way

Maybe the spirit’s born again

In loving refugees

And loving refugees

Maybe there were times

When mortal Jesus

Felt outcast

Alone on Earth

As and why he walked away

From time to time,

Once

Prayed in the garden

x

You know,

We may take up

Exegesis

And

Evangelism

Later

And may I pause midstream

Like the saint to say

To the child Jesus

(I to you

and I a mortal child),

x

Merry Christmas

And for twelve days

That make

This varied

Still hopeful

Hopeful, still

Yes, brief

Season

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C L Couch

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Photo by Robert Kalinagil on Unsplash

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Idea

(x = space)

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Idea

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Here’s an idea:

Leave Ukraine live

Leave Russia live with remorse

While rebuilding

Its neighbor

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We know

There is no recourse

For life lost

Beyond revenge,

And there’s no point in that

Since taken to extremes,

Well,

Our planet burns

x

But Russia can retreat

Tying up its turrets

Into shoelace- or ribbon-chapes

Send rubles back

With many, many helpers

My guess is

There would be volunteers

Among the soldiers

And the uninvolved

Back home

x

Let this be a pattern, then

Let the Rohingya live

And South Sudan

And blacks and whites

In the USA

And elsewhere

And the other colors, too

Let there be colors

Let there be textures

Let there be sounds

And smells and

Things to taste

The best of these

Makes an amazing world

x

Let there be self-competition

Dreaming

Without nightmares

x

In the living

Let us be fed and watered,

Educated and secure

So that when heaven comes

We meet each other

Easy, unexpected kindred

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C L Couch

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Photo by Tobias Schlienger on Unsplash

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Escape Room

(x = space)

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Escape Room

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Once again

For Passover,

Too many now

Are refugees

Fleeing Pharaohnic tyranny

Fear from explosions

Falling walls

Broken bodies

Family annihilation

Other countries take them

Sacred and secular

The people

The new homes

More than Jews in Ukraine

More people leaving

Refugees from Syria

Those who are “repatriated”

(strategic term)

From island nations

To the south

Those who want to leave for life

From Mexico,

Parts of Central America

And when there’s disaster,

We flee from parts

Of our land as well

x

Passover

For so many, many now

Might the angel of death

Give leave

For space and means

For victims

For escape

Blood on the lintels

Before leaving

Death for the victimizers

As angels

As an agency of God

See fit

x

Passover

For Jews in Ukraine

Jews in Israel

And everywhere

Good people have to run

For life

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C L Couch

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For Jews fleeing Ukraine, Passover takes on new meaning

“Good morning! Happy morning!” Rabbi Avraham Wolff exclaimed, with a big smile, as he walked into the Chabad synagogue in Odesa on a recent morning. Russian missiles had just struck an oil refinery in . . .

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Photo by Vitamina Poleznova on Unsplash

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Battle Cry

(x = space)

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Battle Cry

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The war goes on

I know war from

Reading

All Quiet on the Western Front

Johnny Got His Gun

The Red Badge of Courage

Funny war in

Catch-22

Romantic war in

Anything by Alistair MacLean

And

The Lord of the Rings

I’ve seen videos of

Hiroshima,

And I see images of Ukraine

All of which means

I don’t know anything about war

I don’t know the ripping pain

Of bullets

The sounds from

Many explosions

The sounds of people

Wounded

And the dying

All in states of dying

Mortal life leaving the body

Violent upheaval into judgment

All out of place

Before its time

An outrage of angels

Crying from all sides

The risen and the fallen

I hear stories

Read them

Hear them

Imagine them

And let them in

It’s not the real thing

But it’s something

Enough to think and feel

And cry against

And I have perspective

While those who call for war

Haven’t any

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C L Couch

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Photo by British Library on Unsplash

1914, World War 1. Highland Territorials in a trench. Photographer: H. D. Girdwood.

La Gorgue, France

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Cyber Prayer

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Cyber Prayer

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God, help

The people of Ukraine

And the Russians who

Protest the war

And are arrested

By autocracy

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Brave days for faith

And hope

And love

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Amen

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C L Couch

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Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

Cyberpunk Tunnel

London, UK

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War in Ukraine

(x = space)

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War in Ukraine

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If I lived where I live

In Ukraine,

I would be in a battlefield

And would have been here

For some time

I can’t imagine

Mostly because I don’t want to

Explosions down the street

Bullets through the windows

We are involved in

The war on terror

The war on drugs

A cyber war

And violence because our races

Don’t get along

And for other reasons

I’ve been accosted

But mostly enjoy

Citizenship without warfare

On my street

x

But in eastern Ukraine

This has been the state for years

Kitchens are not kitchens

Living rooms can’t be

For living anymore

And now my country’s ringed with

Tanks and soldiers and what else

And I have no gun

And don’t know how to take a side

I simply want to have today

And a good chance for tomorrow

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C L Couch

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Photo by Maurice Pehle on Unsplash

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