Near-Dead Reckoning
If I had children
To rear (that used to be the proper
Word), I’ve little doubt
I’d treasure some time apart, now
And then
There’s a story of the mother of my
Namesake
She was going to walk
Around the hundred-acre wood
Her son asked to go
And she said no
But when I return
Welcome me
As if I had been gone far
Away for a long time
Nowadays what guilt the mom or dad
Must feel to know
That children are taken from their
Parents with no returning
Promised
The parents now are criminals, they’ll say
Trying to enter by
Liberty’s calling
The children are caged, too
Everyone is guilty, by the way
Not one of us gets off
Unless we’re trying
God will accept a prayer
To bring entire families
Along with sanity
To what has been happening
My father’s people were
Here to tie
Up the ships of all the rest
My mother’s people, there’s a problem
Only a few generations here
So I’ll
Have to take my chances
Warming up to say
That without family
Without the value placed
Up on the shelf in pride of place
That what have we of home
A nation of all promises
Is dust collecting
In an empty place
I don’t have all the answers
I don’t know all the rest
But I think impracticality also
Becomes illicit
When we break the bond
That promises compound reckoning
The nuclei destroyed
Hostility left to orbit like
Errant electrons
Preachy
And sing-songy
Yes, I know
But there it is, I’ll ‘fess up,
And if you’ve come this far
We can go farther
C L Couch
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clcouch123 
July 6, 2018 at 9:54 pm
I think what I wrote about Lady Liberty in your later poem,has a lot to do with what you describe here, separating the kids from their parents, judging parents who sometimes have no other chance to save their kids than to cross illegally. ‘‘This one made me very sad, also how the President tried to turn this around, that he wasn’t at fault, and that this bill fixed th3 problem, but he hadn’t fixed anything and not apologized. I think he’s still guilty, but I hope his changes do something more to keep family’s together and he’ll the. Get jobs to become citizens eventually. But who knows. Hope you are well Christopher and sorry that I’ve been absent.
Take care. I hope the heat isn’t too oppressive.
July 20, 2018 at 9:22 pm
Evidently, the deadline is well past regarding when the government was ordered to reunite the families. Only a small number of children with their parents has been taken care of. The best the world can be right now is ashamed for us. As it is, we host the most numerous prison population in the world. With the current policy and practice at the border, we inflate this number with the untried and unindicted–and thousands of children.
July 20, 2018 at 11:11 pm
I guess we can only hope the immigration and US crime rate improves. president Trump aside, I know the rest of the world looks at the US and judges them harshly, but many do so while ignoring their own high rates of persecution, judgement, and other crimes against immigrants and prisoners, who are called guilty w/o habeas corpus, law developed from the Magna Carta, and modern laws. We hear about US statistics, but not about Russia, China, and other places in the world outside of North America and the Western World. I guess the world expects the US to be better, to not repeat the sins of the old world in Europe, where many immigrants come from, and third and second world countries where tyranny often resides.
For my own, I just pray next election there are better presidential candidates running against Trump in the democrat party. For even his Republican Party members, can’t support his behavior.
It’s storming here, warm in the day, cool and raining hard by night. I’m on my own a few days, but okay with it. Sometimes writing is easier to do at night and late afternoon w/o interruption. I don’t quite have the right amount of concentration somedays earlier on.
I hope you are doing okay healthwise and feeling a bit better. I know last week you noted how rough things were with your heart condition. I pray God hears you, and you can spend more days enjoying life.
Talk soon,