Send Something

(x = space)

x

x

Send Something

x

A little love

A few notes in a song

Words on paper

(that’s a note)

Or however

Frankly

A bit of chocolate

Or another treat

Would not go wrong

And may simply

Sensually

Render aid

Toward something right

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Tamas Pap on Unsplash

x

World Water Day

(x = space)

x

x

World Water Day

x

Today is Water Day

And everyone deserves a drink

Of safe water

Drinks throughout the day,

In fact

Or, as my nephew used to say

When a child

Overhearing,

Drink up, Shriners

x

That didn’t mean water

Though

We mean water

Accessible and easy

Without lead in

Flint

Or lack of pipes at all

In western Africa

Or flooding that makes pipe-works

Dangerous

Across the land

And ‘round the world

x

Who digs wells,

Who makes the pipes

xxxxxLays them

xxxxxAnd keeps them?

Why, that would be us

x

This is our responsibility

Since we decided that civilized

Is a good thing

Some thousands of years ago

Then when we discovered microbes

In the water

And later on

When we knew

We had

Polluted everything

x

This is not nature

This is human

Our human responsibility:

Safe water for everyone

Everywhere we are—safe

And provided for

The things of nature,

Too

x

Greed

Gets in the way

And inertia

But there is great energy

And energetic interest

In

Sating all agendas

x

The time is needed, yes,

And

You know

The money

So give the money

x

Let the people work;

Let all people drink;

It’s ethics,

Even anthropology

That is

Why the peoples of the Earth

xxxxxRise, maintain,

xxxxxOr fall

x

Let’s have the world

Let’s have the world have water

First

Today

Into tomorrow

x

C L Couch

x

x

we may contribute to The Water Project (https://thewaterproject.org/) and similar, sound groups

x

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

x

Beatitudo

(x = space)

x

x

Beatitudo

x

Where did this quiet

Come from

With the light angling inside

Yellow for benediction?

It is a gift

Of spring’s first day

It is happenstance

I don’t care

I’m thankful

For the quiet

And the colors

And the benediction I’m

Taking these to be

Thanking the one who blesses

Everything

In creating

And renewing

Like green rising from brown

Made and remade

And by the way

A gift of oxygen

For us

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Chetan Kolte on Unsplash

x

monday protest

(x = space)

x

x

monday protest

x

get up

listen to the noise

and go

and this is how it starts

x

a day

in the modern world

x

no,

thank you

iI’ll stay here

in the drab place

and time

x

of dark and cold

of sleep

and safety

well

x

i won’t grow up

not i

x

if you must leave

i’ll stay

x

c l couch

x

photo by eduardo mallmann on unsplash

x

to pray

(x = space)

x

x

to pray

x

not wishful thinking

not wishes

maybe wishes

maybe where your wants

and mine

and ours

might come together as if this were

how a point of light

in the sky at night

were made

x

we might accomplish this

our wishes changed

our wants intersect

so that

there is something like justice

and like mercy

x

both humility

and confidence

in faith

amen

x

c l couch

x

x

Photo by Tyler Jamieson Moulton on Unsplash

x

Don’t Remove This Label

(x = space)

x

x

Don’t Remove This Label

x

I don’t want to reason

Only secularly

But I look where I am

And listen

x

In a long room

Whose beauty is beneath

Because the skin and other features

Are so poorly cared for

x

Which is to say

It’s old and could be good

But isn’t good

x

The noise of the world

Breaks in from above

And neither rule

Nor rent

Is cared about

x

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

x

Drivers misbehave outside

Sometimes pedestrians

Though the thing about the outside noise

Is that it moves on

x

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

x

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

x

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

x

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

x

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

x

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

x

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

x

Not to mention

I would rather be

Which makes everything more difficult

With you

Attached

Rather than against you

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Thomas Dumortier on Unsplash

x

Future Perfect

(x = space)

x

x

Future Perfect

x

What is that, Father?

The child asks,

Pointing

Like accusation

x

That is a gun, the

Father says

x

Over the mantel

Perched

By law

x

But, observes the child,

It’s falling apart;

I can barely tell the shape

Of it

x

Yes,

Father replies,

And that is the way

Of all guns now,

Now that we’ve grown

To take

Care of each other

And put the guns

Aside

And, as we have,

Reminders

x

Later in the day,

Mother enters

And has news

From work:

x

The assembly made the choice

At last

To take them down,

To put up other tokens,

Totems, symbols,

What have you

What have us

Instead

x

And so

The gun is taken down,

Parts swept off the mantel

And

For a while

The peaceful emptiness there

Pervades

While the family

Talks

About what to put there next

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Patrick Metzdorf on Unsplash

x

a day like no other

(x = space)

x

x

a day like no other

(16 March)

x

we had our Ides

tomorrow is Saint Patrick’s

famous days

while

this day is ordinary

formless

without expectation

to do with what

we will

thank goodness

x

it is a Lenten day

for seasons

and liturgic calculation

and it’s important

as a day in forty days

for thinking

and for faith

for faithful thinking

x

but otherwise

it is alone

between two famous days

so different

that we cannot call today

a bridge

it simply is as is

x

and ready

for whatever

we might

unfamously do

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Adli Wahid on Unsplash

x

Sometimes Agnostically Yours

(x = space)

x

x

Sometimes Agnostically Yours

x

God, what shall I pray

To you?

I’m sorry for my sins

And I mean that

I ask for forgiveness that

Frankly

I struggle in receiving

x

I ask for daily bread

That might be

Bread

Or

Something else

I need

Pretty much right now

x

And I shall wait

Probably

Pretty badly

While I wait

x

Since need often

Feels punished

And faith

Is much

From an invisible God

To wait for

x

And yet

Stones for bread

Is inhumane

And undivine

And so

I’ll try to anticipate

Exactly the right thing

Provided

x

Sorry

Thank you

Amen

x

C L Couch

x

x

Matthew 6:9

x

Photo by Dave Hoefler on Unsplash

x