2 patriot verses
Patriot Dreams
I love my country
Though sometimes
It’s hard
To recognize
For violence
Yes
Also disorder
In the halls of politics
And justice
It seems that we all
Lean
Maybe time
To say so
And admit we can do better
Be larger
Than one interest
So to legislate
Even to judge
I am this
And I am that
My group is this
But I can care
Bigger than
That
And must
To make intact
And keep intact
The nation
From the privilege of chaos
And the run of evil
Ripping through
Any sense
Of unity
Faltered
Flawed
We can do better
Larger
Though the irony must be
That patriot feeling
And intent
Be shown in smaller
Ways
The things of families
And of neighborhoods
Leave me alone
Should not be our working words
Not since
We thought
To work out something
‘Gainst an empire
Knowing that
Solitary items matter
As matter
Individuals
Remember
Though
That birthing seems
Separate
But by necessities
Is actually conjoined
That dying
For some choices might be
Shared as well
That we are in our skins
And inside
Our interests
But we do better
Not for
Groupthink
But when we work it
Healthily
Together
By “patriot dream”
(ethereally good)
We may try
(waking
hale)
Vision
Turned like
Named and unnamed blocks
Into
Democratic strategy
And our
Republic’s practice
God save America
All Americas
And both hemispheres
A planet
Nation
For with reason
Any people
In
The world
May
Build this
Choices in smaller things
The easy things
Be easy
While we also have the larger
And complex
Thus
Vote for
Service
For security
Love of nation
Love of home
Families reconstructed
In any number
Blood
And also water
Both safely
Required
We share
The nation’s business
While invested
In
Our own
The larger one
Be ours
Indifferently approached
Perhaps
(check voting
statistics
far as well as near)
But we live on the promise that
We make this
(large
and small)
Our own
Sustaining it in
Quotidian
As well as come-November ways
C L Couch
Photo by Sardar Faizan on Unsplash
fixin’s
there is war
there is disease
there is famine
there is drought
that causes
famine
though despots
are as likely
if not more
to bring on hunger
in the folk
like you and me
there is corruption
beyond the natural
(though
we waste
enough)
there is the irony
on a blue world
of not having safe water
guaranteed
anywhere
thanks to our being here
the
poisoning residents
so war
disease
hunger
famine to hunger
lack of safe water
despots
and corruption
which is before the count
the destruction
caused by nature
that we call
our mother
time to time
raging as well
under Great Spirit
who must weep in bouts
while spelling anger
how we melt
the valleys
that his hands
pressed and made
mother nature
father spirit
(or
switch the genders
or
add to them
certainly)
leading the cosmos
and our lore
about the cosmos
and whom do we respect
what
to we respect
there’s self-respect
and what do we do
with that
other-respect
perhaps
though mostly as a type
I think
so good that we can envy
or so bad
we can relate
and so vote for
well
these are our problems
aren’t they
and listing them
might help
but as
or followed by
a plan of action
certainly
and not let sado-masochism
make our only world
for habitation
no
we can do better
I am sure
and you are sure
and when we’re sure
we’ll reach out
in spirit
and in flesh
to make it better
make the wounds better
like parents
with Band-Aids
small doses of antiseptic
under
small kisses above
then really get
to work
to make the world
cleaner
through and above
well
everything
not a purge
(never a purge)
but
to fix
and rebuild
then to design above
something to say
and fairly
journey
on to other worlds
c l couch
photo by Nicolas Gras on Unsplash
The Cup of Cold Water
(“I was thirsty, and you gave me drink.”)
There’s nothing like cold water
If you’ve forgotten
Allow me to remind you
The aqueducts of Rome
Spiral wells in the Atacama
Oases here and want to be there throughout the world
The lack of it in Flint
According to recent studies
Not trusting my tap water, either
That’s all right, let them drink from plastic bottles
(we can have it with our cake instead of bread)
Tell that to the lack of wells in western Africa
And those who only have the wherewithal
For thirst
Other than the vine
No greater metaphor in Scripture
Yours or mine
Or simply keep the paperwork
That says we cannot drink
Or of the warlords who say,
I have water
So I win
I once drank water through the ground
Artesian promises
But
The pressure of the
Earth is not
Enough alone
To make it clear
To keep its savor
We have ruined all of it
I don’t mind filters
I’m glad for Brita
But too bad I cannot trust a spring
In the desert
It’s not the suddenness of romance
But the assurance of a poison
I’ll take my filters now
As long as I can
I’ll arrange fundraising for
Wells in real wilderness
But for the suburban places that were made into our own
We can buy
We can vote
We can find the difference
In the basics of thirst
The right to hunger
C L Couch
https://pixabay.com/en/flowers-cup-plastic-water-2690276/
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?
clcouch123 
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