Sleeper Awake

(x = space)

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Sleeper Awake

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It’s 69 degrees

(Fahrenheit)

At (twelve-oh-five, we say)

12:05

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Fall arrives

And hobbits,

The birthdays

Of the Bagginses

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New season

With an equinox

Autumnal

To complement

The vernal

By a half,

Half a year,

Half a world

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We tilt into another

And existentially

A new one

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We have not had

Today

Or this changing

Of the Earth

Around 11

Post-meridian

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Here is the same season

As a new one,

New seconds

Newly breathed

Into hours

And an age

Collectively

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Spring to the south,

Autumn

To the north where

Where there

Might be dragons

In their lairs.

Then

We bring in cold air

And awaken them

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We think fall

Might be the readiness

For freezing,

Sleeping winter;

And yet

(like new school years

for young ones

and for teachers)

Here and now

The adventure,

The quest

Might begin

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C L Couch

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Photo by Hans Isaacson on Unsplash

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Time and Again

(x = space)

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Time and Again

(for J. R. R. T. in the birthday month)

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Sometimes

We know it’s happening

Far away

By powerful people

National leaders

Soldiers with weapons firing

Or

A catastrophe

That has not befallen us

Specifically

And like parades

We know they and these are passing by

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Sometimes it’s here

Still not for us

Our role might be

To observe

Or like the chorus

Comment on events

But this is not our stage

We are not the players

Not the principles,

At least

When there is news

We will know more

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Sometimes it is our time

The light might be on us

Maybe not

But it is our time

The actions

And the consequences

Our place in the world

To secure

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Perhaps I mean

The deaths of kings

(inclusive)

Then a fire in another part

Of town

Then maybe no more than

A birthday celebration

To have with grace

And thanks

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Or maybe our time

Is more important

However to us

It seems

To the people

To the planet

To the cosmos

Believe me or not,

It could happen

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It happened to the hobbit

Most of us are hobbits

Even without the provenance

Or wealth

(before the treasure is acquired)

Of Bagginses

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C L Couch

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Photo by Look Up Look Down Photography on Unsplash

Hobbiton, Mata Mata, New Zealand

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