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To Parkland Youth

To Parkland Youth

(Florida, USA)

 

I’ve worked with teenagers forever

So it seems

And I’m glad

 

I like precocity

 

The plain way teens tend to speak

Reminding me of why I like to walk

The streets of Pittsburgh, for

Pittsburgh people speak their minds with

Measures of respect with

Arrowed expression

 

And when I’m with youth, to say

Don’t forget to be fifteen,

Sensing some relief

All around

 

Being teen is good, and acting real is

Good

There are things you don’t have to

Own because you’re not there,

And this is good

 

Which is not to put you down but to raise up

All the growth that

Happens

In delight, frustration, error, joy

 

You should be free to

Know what to leave and what

To take with you

 

Should not be a thing for you

That we can’t let you finish adolescence

And so enter

The rest of the world

 

You have to step in now

And you shouldn’t have to

 

You have to act as two generations

And there it is

And for all I like you

And because,

This is not right

 

C L Couch

 

5

Armistice

Armistice

 

A hundred years ago

Europe was ablaze

An awful fire, open-pit

Like southern

Soldier picking

 

North Africa, western Asia

Cut into with blunt

European, Turkish knives

As if

The lands were

Burnt meat

 

Now the USA is adding

Fuel to the fire

My grandfather a soldier-stick

Serving with muscle and courage

And fear

(I’m guessing about the fear, for I never

Saw if in him)

 

Then all elevens,

And it’s over: fire tamped

Ashes rising, setting on new ground

Of anger and reparation

 

Peace rendered ironic

Buckets of grave dirt

Thrown against

Walls of retribution

 

Against which

New shadows will rise

 

C L Couch

 

(National Geographic Society)

 

1

Lysistrata Vote

Lysistrata Vote

(USA, elsewhere)

 

A comedy by Aristophanes

 

And a Spanish film

From 2002

(Thanks, Wiki-P)

 

The Lysistrata woman

Wages sex against men who

Rather

Want to go to war

 

She wins, averting

Armageddon

Between Sparta and Athens

 

And, as in all good comedies

(Classic, say),

The community is better,

Stronger for it

 

For her

 

Now

 

For all shes who must be obeyed,

Time for another laugh like this?

Meet You at G20

Meet You at G20

 

“gaps of trust”

which I first read as “gaps of dust”

USA and Russia

Obama and Putin

 

we cannot see each other

for gaps of dust

which might be all that’s left

if we don’t see better

 

look harder

for the truth of us

 

C L Couch

3

World on Fire

World on Fire

 

Several states in USA

Bear fire uncontrolled;

 

Persons have died—

Rampant destruction

Unrolls.

 

UN and news services

Cite the number at

Sixty-five million who

Are refugees, another

Moving blaze.

 

Venezuelans break

Into stores for food—

Don’t tell me poverty

 

And want do not burn,

For they are always

Afire.

 

Politics burns as well,

Violence in discourse:

 

No civility here, thank

You—we’d rather talk

Through bared teeth;

 

Unseasoned anger is

A flame as well.

 

In extinguishing the

Fires, cooling help that

Even overwhelms

Then washes is virally

Needed to calm soon-

to-be charred, hollow

Hearts:

 

Water of

 

Hope, strength for the

Mind with all our literal

Muscle that can

 

Rescue a planet and keep

It safe, even joyful in a

Future (how about later

Today?)

 

Dewy and thankfully

Damp day.

7

Favoring Neighborly Respect

Favoring Neighborly Respect

(greetings with a sigh from USA)

 

We’re not all like Dwayne Wade

Canada is our neighbor, deserving

Of respect

 

And you are liked

 

There is enough to contend with

 

Fire, life of First Nations, economy,

And government—correlations in

USA

 

Antics courtesy of the NBA are

Neither needed nor liked nor

Incumbent here

 

We are friends—maybe we will

Match our amity in action, as

We do in many things

 

But, as with national songs, a

Kinship should be lifted,

Celebrated, and served, O

Canada:

 

The land of hope for all who toil,

The true North strong and free!

 

Thank you for forbearing,

From your friend

12

Canada’s First Family

Canada’s First Family

 

Attawapiskat

First Nation

Northern Ontario

Where the compass

Points

 

They die there

At their own hand

Killing the present

The future and

Relation to the

Past

 

Rich culture made

Impoverished

Reservation life

 

Ten times more

The young men

Die, for women

Twenty-one times

 

A child of nine

An elder seventy-

One

 

A tear (a rush)

A tear (in tragic

Sadness) of

Counselors

Has been hurried

There, but where

Is the missing

Part of life

 

What will

Resolve the hole

Of promises

 

Where harsh

Unappealing life

Without prospect

Fifteen living in

A house for

Three or four

 

Community

Structure minimal

And faulty

 

A solution is re-

Connection to

Heritage

 

A renewed climb

To meet sibling

Spirits in the

Skies

 

Yet once on

Earth again how

Does renewed

Tradition survive

In mortal people

Pushed to the

Edge

 

Forced into

Living prepared

To push over

 

The government

Hears; maybe it

Sends the staff

 

But will it in

Fate complete

The rift of a

Spirit-people

Needing better

Earth to walk

Upon

 

 

Notes

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/21/canada-indigenous-people-first-nations-suicides-refugees?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Version+CB+header&utm_term=168344&subid=16706344&CMP=ema_565

 

U. S. Suicide Rate Surges to a 30-Year High

by Sabrina Tavernise, 22 April 2016

WASHINGTON — Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/health/us-suicide-rate-surges-to-a-30-year-high.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

3

North American Union

North American Union
(not NAFTA, more than)

So my friend Dennis
Who taught me how
To smoke a pipe (don’t
Worry; the pipe for
Years now serves only
As a decoration)

Well, Dennis once
Posited a plan—that
Canada and Mexico
Merge with USA

Dennis from Canada,
I the USA, while we
Lived and worked
Close by the San-Diego-
Tijuana border; we
Spoke of our

Now-new nation (and,
Admittedly, this is
Somewhat stereotypical
Thinking from thirty
Years ago), a country

Enjoined: vast resources
Of nature in the north
With great human ability,
From the south with ever-
New technologies from
The land between

So there, Dennis, shared
In time of friendship,

Knowing that all mortal
Things are finite and
So need care to last then
Maybe last again,

Shall we disassemble
Walls—add a writhing
Serpent into bald eagle’s
Claws, all set upon
Autumnal maple leaf—
This our new metaphor
To try?

Perhaps this is a time
To arrange triangles of
Tables, negotiating
Continents of possibility

0

“America Great Again”

(in wake of USA candidate debates)

 

 
“America Great Again”

Presumes, first, that America
Was great; second, that
America is not great now;

Third, that the way to save
America is retro-work—to
Move back

Americans (from both
Continents) were majestically
Successful in overturning

At deadly, awful, perilous
Cost the evil that was Nazi
Warring by crazed leadership

America (USA) is great with
Wealth and resources,
Though deserves skeptic

Observation in generosity
And evened opportunity;
and while one can appreciate

What are traditional, even
Foundational, values, the
Way ahead is not behind

Returning to the basics
Doesn’t work—though we
Can move forward to the

Basics, crafting and cementing,
Dreaming and creating these
Anew—this way makes USA

Great for a new time, which
Now is a smarter reason to
Elect then, wisely, move forward

8

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