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Don’t Remove This Label

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I don’t want to reason

Only secularly

But I look where I am

And listen

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In a long room

Whose beauty is beneath

Because the skin and other features

Are so poorly cared for

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Which is to say

It’s old and could be good

But isn’t good

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The noise of the world

Breaks in from above

And neither rule

Nor rent

Is cared about

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Outside is a cold and pleasant day

At least to see

I see too much

And need to invoke

The other senses so much more

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Drivers misbehave outside

Sometimes pedestrians

Though the thing about the outside noise

Is that it moves on

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And I know

There are fires

That burn acreage

In a wild and awful way

And those who fight these flames

Are often hurt

And much is lost

Famously

In fires

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And there is war I do not understand

And thank you I don’t want to

I’m sorry

But a bomb

Blasting away everything I know

And cuts away at me

By foes’ intent

I would be crazed

In every way

And to know the agency was human

Without randomness

For an agenda

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And I know that states are falling

While brave people

Stand against

The evil reasons

And the power that, created good,

Is now corrupted

And maybe has been

For a while

But in a den bares now

Its blooded teeth

Behind a guard

That operates somehow

To keep the good ones from approaching

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And I say it thus

With distance

Not that local evil

Hasn’t worked its way

Maybe the world

Learning of democracy

Is ruled by princes

After all

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I simply want a quiet day

And promise of another

I want boredom

To be my awful challenge

And in this way I’ll try

To address the rest

I really will

From here

And now

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You may decide what I am or

Most of you

Ignore me

And why not

Ignoring what

We need

To keep our naïve brand

In place

Like the labels on the furnishings

We do not tear off

Even though I doubt

The wars

Should care

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I care

Not about that

But decades into this

I care

You might care as well

And more than me

Knowing better what to protest

What to fight for

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Not to mention

I would rather be

Which makes everything more difficult

With you

Attached

Rather than against you

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C L Couch

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Photo by Thomas Dumortier on Unsplash

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