Tricks

(x = space)

x

x

Tricks

x

Silly rabbit

Bear of little brain

Ferdinand

Under the cork tree

Where

There are

Redolent flowers

Where Ferdinand

Redoles

x

Dog flying plane

On  doghouse

Cat invested

In lasagna

The animals know

We craft

Their knowing

Franciscan-relegated

Wisdom

Preaching to birds

Who listen

x

The cardinals who

Live red

The ravens who laugh

Black

x

To all the lower

Creatures

Who act better

x

One virtue

Per species,

Each an exemplar

x

While we have

Way too many

Too complex a menagerie

Made

Of excuses

x

The stolid thing

We offer

Maybe we imagine

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Marco Biondi on Unsplash

x

When Worlds No Longer Can Collide

(x = space)

x

x

When Worlds No Longer Can Collide

x

This is not

What I want

I want the innocence

Without the naivete

x

I want

To like the colors

All of them

The rainbow

And the color wheel

x

I want

To enjoy

The softness of felt

From the playful

Learning boards

Of childhood

x

I want

To be both

Simple and profound

To have some shapes

Some textures

That have meaning

Day to day

x

That all of this

Is my philosophy

And if I wear a tie

Or shiny shoes,

No one should care

x

But me

And you

With whom I share

The pleasure in the day

In the life

And we have met

Should we meet

Choosing to sip coffee

At a café by the lake

In Switzerland

I have made up

x

(made up the café

and your company

not Switzerland that

has been around

for a while

and I’ve never been there)

x

I’d like anyone

To get this

For pursuits,

Philosophy

Share in it

In these

Make your own

To have

To offer

Where you imagine

We might meet next

x

C L Couch

x

x

When Worlds Collide is a novel by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie.  There is a sequel titled After Worlds Collide.  They are science fiction, and I recommend them.

x

Photo by Danny Lines on Unsplash

x

A Quiet Place

(x = space)

x

x

A Quiet Place

(a sequel)

x

A song

A horror movie

A hyped-up culture

Maybe doesn’t want one

But I do

x

Something calm

With windows large enough

To witness nature

As it passes

With sun or wind

Or snow or rain,

Things better watched

And heard

From inside

With ceilings high enough

So I could imagine a cathedral

Rather than

A cave

(it’s all right—I am imaginative)

A place to live with my own noise

That is modified respectfully

With regard to

Neighbors whom

I might get to know

x

C L Couch

x

x

New Forest Lane

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

New Forest National Park, United Kingdom

[cathedral]

x

Exhale

Exhale

 

Out goes the bad air

In goes the good

That was from a cartoon, I think

Someone pushing water out

And hoping oxygen got in

In an animated way

And in an animated way

 

That’s all I remember

Maybe a vague image in black and white

But everything was black and white

We didn’t have a color set

As for a time, no one did

In what was technology but

Shooting rockets into space

Removing oxygen in liquid style

One-way breathing

For a planet

 

Awaiting returns for investment

Time and space, material and energy

Before we got the set

And got Apollo

Earthy breath

That is imagination

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Bill Jelen on Unsplash

The June 29, 2018 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was scheduled for 5:42:42 AM in order to rendezvous with the International Space Station. Every rocket has a plume of exhaust, but only the rockets launching just before sunrise will show up like this one.

 

A Prequel to Aeneid

A Prequel to Aeneid

 

I imagine I’m

On the porch of

An ancient Greek house

There are pillars all around

It’s a warm, airless day

 

And me, I’m doing this

I’m writing

Maybe I’m leaving something for

Posterity, because

By government or commerce

Speechifying’s more important

 

It could be a will

A source for disagreement

When I’m gone

Or mischief in an epic

Something afterward to leave around

Somewhere

For the future, maybe for a conqueror

 

In which I take the loser’s side

And change the tone of

Everything

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Aubrey Rose Odom on Unsplash

 

Men into Space

Men into Space

(someone else’s nostalgia)

 

William Lundigan beat them all

Because he got to space in the fifties

I didn’t see this show while

Growing up

Or Johnny Sokko with his giant robot in the

Half hour before

Other shows I missed as well

Supercar, for instance

I guess this was the fifties-sixties way

To get us there

Enjoy the ride

And encounter who knows what

Only the television writers knew

 

Thankful for retrograde, I guess

Retroactive, retrospective

The tier of channels that carry

Our imagination

From the past

Into the present

Maybe to conferences

And comic books

And all sorts of new brains

 

New days

That started here

In my older siblilngs’ days

Brought forward

Into better resolution

 

Now let’s have, please

Women into Space

 

C L Couch

 

 

image, NASA

STS Discovery Mission 131, International Space Station

Astronauts (clockwise from top right) Naoko Yamazaki, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, and Tracy Caldwell