Triscuit Decks a Phobia

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Triscuit Decks a Phobia

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I keep forgetting

That when the first is on a Sunday

There will be a Friday

The thirteenth

I have to pay attention

Though I’m not afraid

I find it interesting

The day

The superstition

All our reactions

When we realize

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There’s the Irish in me

Or you

Or the Italian or the Russian

The Kenyan

Or the Māori

Part of you

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Loki

Raven

Anansi

All the mischief-makers

Plus phantom pronouncements

On the cracks

Under the ladders

With the black cats

Passing by

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The weight of superstition

Better to wear it lightly

Over souls

Keep a thought

Let it drive you

Toward civility

With an interest in

What drives an utterance

Of the Scottish play

Inside the theatre

In another play’s production

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Maybe ghosts will tell us

Why it matters

Since the ethereal

If not the numinous

Is attached

And coursing through

The old sources

And our own,

Both inventing things

For cautions

In our day

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n. b.

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Be nice to black cats

They are not superstition;

They could have stanched

The plague

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C L Couch

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Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

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Any Day Now

(space = x)

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Any Day Now

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Sigh,

It’s Friday, Lord

I exhale into the day

Sunlit

Upon the floor

A cat might be happy

There

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I can’t

Keep the news

In my head

I know it’s hard

Sometimes

There’s something good

To help the day

We’re breathing through

And gently taking from

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Our cats and dogs

Upon our floors

And all the strays

We made

An age ago

And should take in

As well

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All the causes

Everything that moves us

And should bind us,

The catastrophes

We should see each other

Through,

Which make us ready for

A triumph

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C L Couch

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Photo by Matheus Queiroz on Unsplash

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On the Ecumenism of Species

(x = space)

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On the Ecumenism of Species

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Dogs and cats should share

Often, they do

They share heat when it’s cold

They can share toys

They can treat each other

As toys

Food is another matter

Their systems are different

So unless it’s An Incredible Journey

Situation,

They should eat apart

And eat apart

Be who each other is

They can rest together

Often, they do

And enjoy God’s-creature status

Both, together

All, together

Now

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C L Couch

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Photo by Madalyn Cox on Unsplash

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I Hope the Dogs and Cats Are Well

(x = space)

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I Hope the Dogs and Cats Are Well

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I heard stories about them

Early in the war

Not so much now

There might be zoos

I remember that detail

In a story by Unamuno

About the end of the world

And the wild animals getting out

But dogs and cats need our help

They always do

We made them that way

Adapted them for use

And took away their other capabilities

How could they stand up to wolves

Or bears or badgers

Wolverines

Or unknown men and women

With machine guns

Who have no familiar smells

Nothing about them

To indicate

Friend

Or family

Or home

Cats and dogs might do all right

With welcome from the stranger

But in battlefields

The anonymities are too severe

And the cruelties

Tend to pile up

Where did they go?

Where are the ones I was protecting?

I do not know anyone

Anything

Anymore

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C L Couch

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Photo by troy williams on Unsplash

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Species Speak Out

(x = space)

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Species Speak Out

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Is there a dog

In doggerel?

How about a dog

In dogma?

And while we’re at it,

Should it not be called

Godma?

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I’m sure there is

A certain species

That, should we understand

And grasp

The elevated obvious,

Should know

Things are better served

By catterel

And catma

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C L Couch

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Love between Dogs and Cats

Photo by Callum Shaw on Unsplash

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Friday Felines

Friday Felines

 

I will see cat-friends tonight

They will ignore me

I’m not feeding them

They’ll act as if they do not play

Though I know it’s different

 

One friend

Erstwhile Pennsylvania Quaker

Might decide it’s time for

A first-floor chase

Or to jump on me, reach toward my

Ear as if to say

Quietly through sharpened teeth,

Feed me

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Sam Lee on Unsplash

2 Chome-4-8 Daiba, Minato, Tokyo 135-0091, Japan

 

Cat House

Cat House

 

Last night I saw

Cat-friends

Allergies notwithstanding

There were people, too

They’re fine, I think,

The cats (I guess the people, too)

The screened-in porch was open to them

In fact, a breeze

And persons to protect the bowls

One cat’s from the other

The skittish cat leaped up

The other flowed like mercury

Upon the floor

Seeking a container of some sort,

I think

The way liquid does

We ate

They hoped

We watched a film

They stayed away

We had to pass through, after

Their insistence came alive again

Furballs of self-interest

That is their purpose

And their lesson

Nature to the rest of us

Not wrong to want our way

Not bad to serve affection

For no reason

Beyond being

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by cocoparisienne from Pixabay

 

Friday’s Children

Friday’s Children

 

It’s Friday

I should say something

About cats

And to be fair

Dogs

And if you have a rabbit

Pet your rabbit

Be careful ‘round the ears

Otherwise, I think they like it

 

Friday’s child is loving and giving

Cats, it’s true

Are a source of affection

And encouragement

Through seeming indifference

Dogs are obvious about it,

Aren’t they?

Sometimes that’s just what we need

Obvious affection

I’ve spent most of my life

Around both

Not both kinds of cats (though

that’s true)

But contrary cats

And thorough dogs

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by Peter Morth from Pixabay

 

Cat News in Mews

Cat News in Mews

(not meaning stables except I guess as places for cat-gossip)

 

In a recent study

It was on the news today

Arch researching

(not unlike the cats indifferent

arch that is a pose, I’m sure) Found that

Cats can hear us

They know our names

They simply choose

To ignore us

 

This is news?

We know our cats know us

We count on it

As they on us

It’s a round-robin game

(sparing the robin)

The supplicants of Bastet

Could inform you

And all the rats on ships

 

Certainly, they know their names

But what is in the mind

Are silent cues

Scripted by a

God who loves them both

The felines and their victims

 

Cycles for the ages

Worthy of praise

Like Christopher Smart’s cat Jeoffry

Who will, I’m sure, not hear daily

Anything else

 

C L Couch

 

 

 

Study of the Virgin and Christ Child with a cat.

Leonardo da Vinci – The British Museum Database, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11231152

 

“Jubilate Agno”

Christopher Smart

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45173/jubilate-agno