Brother Cat

(x = space)

x

x

Brother Cat

(about Hannah, rescued on Hanover Street)

x

I was the brother cat

Sometimes father

Sometimes mother

We could get confused

You were the sister cat

Doubtlessly

Though you didn’t seem

To mind it

When I used Your Majesty

x

Sister queen cat

Cat with an attitude

Little cat

Who acted big

Alpha cat

When there was a beta

x

Funny cat

You were so serious

Except when you weren’t

You’d run out the door

And up the tree

High enough for me

To reach you

Bring you down

Hold you ‘til we were both

Inside

x

You were the cat

Who gave me cues

For petting

And for making

Entryways for sleeping

Out of blankets, though

Mostly out of me

x

I could work

As long as you were

On my lap,

Which was your strategy

x

A challenge came

When people came to call

If they wanted you,

You would check out their laps

Sometimes their faces

Generally, be slow and still

More so

Than you were with me

Or if you weren’t sure about

Who was visiting,

You’d jump up, pour into

My lap

And from there

Stare at the suspect

x

For nineteen years

You were remarkable cat company

Despite the allergies

I miss you

And would have you back

In fact, occasionally I see you

In a blurred and catly place

Inside the corner of my eye

x

C L Couch

x

yesterday I read “Sister Cat” by Frances Mayes

x

x

Photo by Sourish Trivedy on Unsplash

A super good-looking lion (like me of course [photographer talking]) enjoying an evening on a cool rock in B&W!

Maasai Mara National Reserve, Ngiro-are Road, Kenya

x

The God of Sleep

(x = space)

x

x

The God of Sleep

x

Morpheus?

No, that’s for dreams

I’ll have to look it up

How about the Sandman

For the present?

x

Sandwoman

Sandperson

Spell-check doesn’t like these

But whoever

Might come to call

For some obeisance

And a following

Whatever ritual

(save sacrifice of something

other than me)

To make

To have the next several hours

Gone

To Elysia

Or Parnassus

Where I could learn to draft

With poets

Or anywhere that keeps me quiet

Unaware

In the world

Of you and me

x

C L Couch

x

x

Hypnos—I looked it up—is the Greek god of sleep

x

Photo by Brina Blum on Unsplash

Sleeping French Bulldog in the Sun

Weisenau, Mainz, Germany

x

summation

(x = space)

x

x

summation

x

its been a day and i havent told you anything ive been in pain and there has been some amelioration through being still and water food when I was hungry

x

ive been praying prayers as time rick goes by for welcome home to those whove died healing for those in hospital or in pain for reasons that take us other places or simply to the heart and mind and spirit of a promise

x

now the day is over night has drawn nigh to paraphrase another older song more sleep for you less pain for you more health in the morning or reverse that if you work at night third shifting

x

c l couch

x

x

photo by gilberto parada on unsplash

x

O Sweet, Majestic Lord

(x = space)

x

x

O Sweet, Majestic Lord

x

O to invoke you

Oh to complain

Or sigh as if

I could rest

Upon your feet

Or lay my head

On your knee

It’s not worship

I know

But it would be amazing

To rest on God

This way

And feel the cloth

And flesh and bone

Beneath

Because the one of you

Who has these

Could come to me

This way

And I could sigh into my sorrow

And hope to

Sanctify my dreams

While you might

Accept my tears

Not as libation

But as something honest

Offered

Of myself

For a change

And for a change

Reverse the pietà

I want to rest on Jesus

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Boudewijn Huysmans on Unsplash

x

two poems for Thanksgiving

(x = space)

x

x

two poems for Thanksgiving

x

x

The Godmother

(Sarah Josepha Buell Hale and Thanksgiving)

x

In the USA

Other nations have

Their days

It was Hale

An editor

Who lobbied

Above Washington’s

Claim as a foundation

That

The nation needed

Officially

Thanksgiving

Hale wrote to Lincoln

Other Presidents

Before

That this day was

Needed for a nation

Even in the

Horrible paradox of war

To say thank you

To whomever we should

Be saying thank you

x

Lincoln conceded

Gave a proclamation

That would not be set

For many years

Long after Hale’s

Life on Earth

Was done

x

A first Republican

Then a long-serving Democrat

(who liked new deals)

Sealed the deal

And so we have it

Fourth Thursday

In the ninth Roman month,

November

To you and me

x

x

The Day We Have

(on Thanksgiving)

x

Football and turkey

Then more football

Stuffing and cranberries

Maybe ham

Or roast beef

Or sandwiches from

The many places

Selling sandwiches

x

I suppose there will be

Beer and wine

(beer before wine is fine)

Water

Juice

Soft drinks

People ‘round the table

Between quarters

x

If turkey,

Then turkey sandwiches

(little mayo,

cranberry sauce)

Before the day is done

With

More sustenance

Kept inside the box

For tomorrow

And tomorrow and tomorrow

Since there’s too much

Lucky us

Who have too much

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Morvanic Lee on Unsplash

x

Thank you!

x

machine time

(x = space)

x

x

machine time

x

repeating numbers

for today

ones and twos

the sun is shining

angled beneath

clouds

mist that has risen

and such

above it could be blue

and then the black of space

with all our trash

and earnest vehicles

in orbit

x

look down

and there’s the floor

to the left

is cooling coffee

right in front

is this machine

with a screen that challenges

endurance

still so much easier to use

than typing through

a master’s degree

on Olympia, Corona,

and my sanity

x

remember paper?

that’s what we used

for turning in assignments

before the imposition

of electrons

paper, sticky stamps

other adhesives

it was a world, then,

that we could touch and hold

and know we’ve used

x

c l couch

x

x

photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

x

love alters not

(x = space)

x

x

love alters not

x

. . . Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

(from) Sonnet 116

x

now the next chapter

x

love alters not

has come to mind

I’m not sure why

x

the poet claims

in poem’s voice

that as we change

love doesn’t change

x

I wonder also that

we might do better than

(more in addition to)

the fixed mark

x

love doesn’t change

when we encounter change

because we will

it will happen in us, too

age, talent

insight

dreams fulfilled

or unfilled

x

will we love the same,

shall we?

x

and I’m wondering

with time and change

set on a frantic world against us

yet

in all the deeper layers of endearment,

if we change

might we evolve

(I know, that word)

into our earthy, better loves

x

so that both

both adapt

as well as remain

(and well-remain)

and like the roots

of earnest Earth

unreached, reached,

and reaching

all directions

(the extents of our exchange)

we last ages

in age

x

trust doesn’t change in time

it seasons with the seasons

more reliant

and more comfortable

resolute in crisis

and with good drinks

set at table

seated by the sea

that dreams with us

of better earth

in redeemed entirety

x

thanking each other

for the love

that has not changed

and changed

x

c l couch

x

x

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

(upside-down heart to look like a triangle; triangle meaning delta; delta meaning change after heat is applied—whew, sorry; maybe on a t-shirt)

x

Smart People Eschew Politics

(x = space)

x

x

Smart People Eschew Politics

x

It is said

I’ve cited this before

That smart people

No longer run

For anything in politics

They are repulsed

They are not chosen, anyway

The crisis is

Bipartisan

The last smart person said

Was Adlai Stevenson

Who is before my

Voting time

x

Labels don’t count

(smart is as smart does)

Neither degrees

Nor Rhodes

Nor anything metal

Or on paper

(smart is as smart does)

x

Let the intelligence in

Again

(not referring to spies

you know that)

With some reach toward relevance

Un-degreed

Degreed

Either, more, less

I hear smart is as smart does

Journey to Hodgenville

To start

x

Where someone looked up

At the stars there,

Too

x

C L Couch

x

x

Direct image of a supermassive black hole at the core of Messier 87.

x

sure things

(x = space)

x

x

sure things

x

the child

dressed up as a cowboy

or a football player

dream and irony

x

even then

the heart

might be folded badly

not closing right

or opening

for blood and air

x

and did I feel it?

ask the child

I’m asking later

I don’t know

no one told me

maybe no one knew

until later

x

when the heart attacks

and surgeries

and the device implanted

were and are

sure things in

the older self

x

c l couch

x

x

photo by elias maurer on unsplash

x