(x = space)
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x
Play Dates
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We should have
a good weekend. We
deserve it. Not everyone
will have one because
those will work
to keep the power
on and
other things. So
there’s the possibility
for rest and joy in
good and homely things.
We should permit
Our gratitude. Happy
Saturday and Sunday,
friend. If
not free, then
when you have
a long break later on.
x
C L Couch
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Photo by Shannon VanDenHeuvel on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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August on Deck
(easy greetings)
x
It’s Friday
Anticipate a weekend
Late summer
Final trip before the school year
Work at home
Clean at home
Leave the home
For the park
For stores
For church
Find company
Leave company
Hours on one’s own
The quiet might invite
x
Or out into the world
A different way
A drive, a walk
To nowhere in particular
A new nowhere
Untried
Something heard of
Or an inviting opening
A path into
Some inviting part of the world
Keep safe
Why not
x
After the anthem,
Play ball
x
x
C L Couch
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Photo by Maksym Tymchyk 🇺🇦 on Unsplash
I look at this
I can smell the stalks, the petals
Memory, I suppose
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(x = space)
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Fifth Day
x
It’s Friday
And we face the weekend
An invention that started with
Reform laws
For factories
I hope you have a grand time:
Play
Find a moment in which
To be grateful
For reformers
x
If you are having fall
I hope it is the right kind for you
Colors
A degree of chill,
Wind that speaks
And, when not speaking,
Sings;
If it is spring for you
I hope you find new life
The right intensities
Of green and blue
x
If there is a sabbath service for you
I hope you find God at home
x
C L Couch
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Photo by Oliver Hihn on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
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Counting Days
(days that count in pandemic time)
x
You know, folks
Have a good weekend
I know there are fires
I know that in my land
The President is sick
So somewhere there are those
Discussing the Twenty-Fifth
While I imagine
He will act as if he’s tougher than disease,
Though he is not
x
But we need to live
And it’s Friday afternoon
I will stop counting days
When I no longer lose
My way
If you told me it were
Tuesday,
I’d be inclined
To believe it
This should be,
As I say,
The year of doing nothing
What we need for life
Yes, fighting the fires
And retraining other violence
From nature, then,
And tragically
Of our design
x
Otherwise, it should be
Science and care
Support the end of the disease
And watch out for each other
In the mean time,
Such watching out meaning
We’re busy
Feeding, sheltering,
And yes occupying
Each other
x
It’s Friday afternoon
(I’m pretty sure)
Have a good weekend
Pray for the President
Pray harder
For citizens who
Did not ask for this
Pray for you
Pray for me
Praying for our aching world
Pray for peace in nature
And our designs
x
C L Couch
x
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Photo by Keyvan Mansouri on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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A Human Gift
x
God smiles on a Saturday
The human invention
Of a weekend
An extra day for homework
Sleeping in, perhaps
Housecleaning
Or play
x
It’s a gift we gave ourselves
Along with ending child labor
In “Satanic Mills”
And the imposition on the profit-makers
Of an eight-hour day
For manufacturing iron and steel into
Gold and empire,
All of which happened
With agrarian losses
And also serfs and lords
In the old system
Classes turned into attitudes
x
It’s more complex, of course
But doesn’t bear a quiz
This is the day we have
(not everywhere)
An extra day for homework
Sleeping in, perhaps
Housecleaning
Or play
x
C L Couch
x
x
“Jerusalem,” a hymn, words by William Blake
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Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash
Let’s play fetch!
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The Rabbi Walked Out
I want to call it Thursday
Penultimate weekday
Some extra breathing
Room for action
‘Til the weekend mind take over
Issues realized
The work week
The weekend
Take the children from the factory
It’s taken ages,
And we still have a ways to go
For these
With older evils—slavery,
Sex work
The companies that say
You do not matter
We will use you ‘til you’re done
And then some more
Then forget you were ever here
We’re civilized, we say
But it’s a rounded apex
On a shifting base
Where evils
Slide like scorpions
Ancient riddles
We have left unanswered
While those of us who could
Have climbed
Set flags
And hope that they will stand
Until we’re gone
For the rest who stay
One generation to the other
Today should be the day
We stay for freedom
Fight
Start a resistance
Ask for help
Steal the technology for reaching
Count the cost
Each one has value
Lose until we’ve won
C L Couch
(the Rabbi mystery series by Harry Kemelman)
Photo by Marie Bellando-Mitjans on Unsplash
Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany
https://www.jmberlin.de/en/shalekhet-fallen-leaves
Hump Day
(be nice)
One term
Fall term, I think
There was a student
Amanda
Who came into class each Wednesday
Declaring it was hump day,
Which was a good thing for her
(declaring it, and it being Wednesday)
In a fifteen-week semester, most of
Another week was done
I imagine in all our versions of work weeks,
We can relate
Amanda, then, would help us understand
Wednesday to be both an arch day
And a day between
(good work, Amanda)
On either side the keystone lay
Half the week
Even one weekend day on either side
If we accede, traditionally,
Sunday as the first day
We learn that there is symmetry
We learn that there is none
And there is virtue,
Even wider goodness
In each way
But here’s something cleanly halved
With a marker in its place
Unevenness is fine
But in the middle of each week
We may enjoy appreciable halves
In the count of days
I write Thursday, by the way, which means
The second half of the week is
Sliding into weekend
C L Couch
By Wilson44691 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15414176
Dromedaries in the Negev
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