Who Wins

(x = space)

x

x

Who Wins

x

An empty room

Where there might have been a meal

Smell the hope and then the fear

And here’s a garden

Pretty

There was violence here

Now the plot is done,

Everything realized

x

Another foe

Who sought to shift the blame

From Rome to us

Our need to have an enemy

To stoke our places

In tradition

x

The others should be caught

The followers

No hurry

The serpent is now headless

Only nerves remain

x

The world has won

And we are glad

Our own strategy to overthrow

Goes back into a box

In which there is less silver

To count

x

An easy price

To pay

For indolence

Now back to lethargy

We have time

And everything is scheduled quiet

Scheduled noise

Again

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Daniel Katz on Unsplash

Masada

Lookout through ancient Masada building.

x

Convictions

(x = space)

x

x

Convictions

(last day of Lent)

x

I look around at everything

Liturgically, it is the day before

A triumph

Such as Roman victors knew

No wonder Herod was frightened

And Pilate tactically

Concerned

None of it was sanctioned

It spoke to rebellion

Though everything was peaceful

In that way

x

I look around

And wonder about everyone

How to celebrate an arrival

And then turn on the one

A few days later

Or however long it took

x

I want to say I’m sorry

I look around at everything

And say I’m sorry

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by MAURICIO EJCHEL on Unsplash

Jerusalém, Israel

Traditional loaf salesman at Old Town in Jerusalem.

x

You before Me

(x = space)

x

x

You before Me

(for everyone)

x

You’re in line

In front of me for friendship

x

We’ve been here

For an age

And hear the hits,

One hit at a time,

Behind us

x

To feel the hit

Anonymous

Then know by instinct

Now

(it’s how the world works)

To strike the person

Back of the head in front

Anonymous (we’ll

get away with it)

And then receive

The things,

What people say

We’re due

x

In a line of greed

Even for an age,

Someone must turn first

To receive the slap

Looking into the face

x

Then the forward movement

Stops and painless

Possibilities considered

x

It’s risky

Being hit so hard

(regulations say each

must hit hard),

But all good things are chances;

x

Life might end for me

Or in part,

Begin for you

And everyone

Ahead of you

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Srivatsa Sreenivasarao on Unsplash

Four Birds and Reflections

x

Me before You

(x = space)

x

x

Me before You

(for youth)

x

Peace in our time,

Which implied more strongly

Than the message

That there would be no peace

In their time,

The coming generation’s

x

We bargain with our children’s

Lives and should

Know better,

Abrogating wisdom

And the sacrifice of us

So that they have a world

Better than we found it

x

There used to be a message,

Parents investing

So that children should have

Better lives than theirs,

A message that had stopped

Variably in the seventies

And eighties,

Not to mention attitudes

Toward annihilation

From the war that was so cold

x

Sorry about all that,

All this

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash

Freedom

x

An Eighth Day

An Eighth Day

 

If we were given

an extra day,

would we play?

 

It if were announced,

a day that wouldn’t count

for acquisition,

a gift of food and air

and water,

a day when no one could

wage war

or victimize another,

would we play?

 

Would some say

not me,

I’m too urgent,

I have to impress,

nature to command,

so many things to hoard

and wielding bellicose conversation,

I will not play.

 

Well, go home, then.  You may

have a room in which to

exist; nothing

will work, and there will be

no toys.

 

Angels will referee, if need be,

though mainly they’ll be waiting

by the fields, near the water,

at the table in the

houses that have

family rooms

 

to help, to pass out balls and

gloves and discs that fly,

to spread out the board, play-cash,

and tokens

while everyone gets the piece

they want to play.

 

Everyone gets chosen

everyone feels first

everyone gets a turn;

agendas are released

and for a change, all genders

and colors are assets like

winning extra turns.

 

The cosmos will keep quiet,

slide over to tomorrow.

When it’s time, we’ll catch up fine.

After our eighth day

for play.

 

C L Couch

 

 

Nyla Moss, an eighth grader at Polaris Charter Academy, plays at Kells Park in Chicago’s West Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Andrew Gill/WBEZ

For West Side Students, Playing Outside Is Protesting Against Gun Violence

Linda Lutton

May 26, 2017

https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/for-west-side-students-playing-outside-is-protesting-against-gun-violence/3f7a4cb7-ec1c-4cc4-817e-3ee5e5ca865a

 

Older Love

Older Love

 

It is in the first Christian hymn

Love begotten

As in created

Dropped like ritual paint upon

An unmarked, earthy plank

Moved around in riotous,

Primal aesthetic

Made for pleasure in the universe

Because God knows

It’s not enough minimally

To exist

 

In the pushing of all things

There must be meaning

Not in gnostic sentences

Trying to spell secrets in the skies

But something all of us can have

Without exotic training

Or supernal

Scrying

 

Pointers at best

But knowing there’s a reason

Without the heart

Without first favor

Placed over everything that’s made

Or co-made

Well, that pointing will not

Get us there for being

Easily if not covetously

Sideswiped on the way by

Desires and the vicissitudes of

Living without spirit

Rising from the dwelling of the soul in

Each one

 

We were built, singly and together

One by one and all

We can perceive a universe

And with earnestness take hold

Who we are

Of anything that’s good and sound and loving

You and me embrace

All things ordinarily divine

 

C L Couch

 

 

https://www.wikihow.com/Capture-a-Big-World-in-Small-Sketches

 

Love is There

Love is There

(at any age, on any page)

 

Where?

 

Up?

If I look up,

will I see it?

 

Out?  If I go

outside, will I

be it?

 

Around the

world, where no

bound can

keep it?

 

Or deep inside,

where when I

hurt I hide it?

 

Love is there.

It’s everywhere.

 

Reach out;

we’ve earned

it.  Teach it, and

we’ll learn it.

 

Everyone of

Earth and

on

 

deserves

love from

birth to

build upon.

 

 

Psalm 20, a song when celebration

Psalm 20
a song when celebration

When the world is celebrating
We remember those
Who cannot be

Not to diminish our joy
But to make it fuller
To have a thought for the care

Of, well, you know, everything
And everyone
Blanket all of us in safety, Lord

Christmas

Christmas

Christmas
the mass of Christ
mass means together

we value peace on this day
many in a non-sectarian way;
silence prevails
though there will be those
who’ll try to ruin it

what can we say?
Christians might say
that Christ came down to earth
or came up
or came from all around

to buy peace, yes, and offer
of salvation, a ransom for the
sins of all—this is how our
lesson goes

must we enjoy belief in this
to have peace at this time?
I think we know the answer’s no

Preferred, maybe, by the sect
though God’s peace
is offered up as God’s preference
everywhere, for all

if you know John three-sixteen,
please read through seventeen—
and all have a glorious, peace-filled
Christmas day