Wargodlike

(x = space)

x

x

Wargodlike

x

We’ve known God

For a long, long time

Leaders used to want

To curry favor

So built monuments, set

Time

Struck stone tombs with

Asking after asking after asking

To be let in

In a public sense,

Regardless of administration

x

It’s easy now

It’s vogue to say there is no God

So no one to attend

No one to tithe

No one to contribute anything

Except to me

And my circle

Broken, though I do not know

Cursed through an absence of words

Who hasn’t earned ruins

But the detritus in between

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Matin Tavazoei on Unsplash

x

Three, One, Three Again

(x = space)

x

x

sorry, long

x

x

Three, One, Three Again

x

1

Creator, savior, guide

Maybe I understand the trinity

Maybe not

They are lively

And immediate

They are at work all the time

And understand rest

They commend a sabbath

And the days on either side

They are all efficiency

And all love

We have access to them

And, as teachers and advisors

Not to mention

God,

They nudge us

All the time

x

2

What kind of commanders

Legions at their call

They give us time

And patience

Before anything like

A final battle

Victory assured

I mean in this moment

We wait and wait and wait

Or, worse, deny

While they withhold rejection

Until the moment

Past the moment

Before judgment

Should decide

x

They give us time

Keeping everything at bay,

Which is love

All love

Splicing revelation

Tailoring salvation

For each one

Each encounter

How wondrously and thunderously

Special

What kind of God

What parts of God

Can do this

And then do it

x

3

Hear, O Israel

And all other nations,

Catch them in the human heart

Live as one

Each one as all

Repair the ruin of the Earth

There is so much faith

And good work to do

x

They are mild

They are also Armageddon

What kind of love

What kind of God

Three then one

Then three again

They live in constant relationship

So should we

Within the parts

Of ourselves,

Each one

And then

Altogether

x

More than one in one

We can have that, too:

Remember might

Remember love

Both mingled in each moment

Quicksilver

And slow water

Everything that moves

And tries to rest

They show us the way

To give us something every day

Then just after our last day

After work

And battling

And sabbathing

To lead us home

x

C L Couch

x

x

Maybe it’s not my tradition, but I mean to be respectful of the Shema.

x

Temple of Edfu, Egypt

Photo by Jeremy Zero on Unsplash

x

Hot Mess

(x = space)

x

x

Hot Mess

x

A knifing pain

Guts through

This is not a study

The other one

Must be a saint

So this must be the demon

x

Hooked on one’s own

Fallacies, who can

Judge the partial

And unknown?

Who should?

x

God should

But we are here

On Earth

x

C L Couch

x

x

lit cooker gas ring

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

x

The Arrival

(x = space)

x

x

The Arrival

x

My people don’t believe

In me,

And I am sad

And I am vengeful—the

Only thing allowed to be

x

I shall find them In their lairs

And look for justice,

Any sign of righteousness

Because

I am all mercy as well

x

I stay my hand

And also bring it down

x

I’d rather they live in paucity

And peace with Earth

And each other,

Leaving the world no worse,

If not better,

When a generation’s

Done with it

x

Creation is renewable

As it is sustainable,

x

But I have other children;

Here,

I have placed a point

In time

For an arrival

And the last catastrophes

x

I wish they would be good,

I wish they would believe,

x

I wish that judgment

Perfect in me

Could be a happy process

When all of us are here

At last

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by HKTreks on Unsplash

Comet NEOWISE

x

Fractured Confession

(x = space)

x

x

Fractured Confession

x

I haven’t said anything

About God today,

Which isn’t true

x

I wrote above,

Commenting on

God’s judgment

And its fairness against

Earthly powers

x

Sometimes, I think,

The issue is

Power versus prophecy

With God surprising us

In interpretation

When it rolls

And tolls

Like justice

Over Earth,

All planets,

Our sun,

And all stars

x

C L Couch

x

x

“Earth and All Stars,” a Christian hymn (with rather ecumenical lyrics)

x

Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

x

Seeking Sin Eaters

(x = space)

x

x

Seeking Sin Eaters

(Genesis 3:8, Revelation 15:16)

x

We say to the sun

Or moon or stars

Or hills or valleys or any part

Of Earth that might

x

To cover us,

To hide us from

The wrath of God

Or of people

Or of other consequences

x

To take our names,

Apply them to another

Quantity,

To stick our names to a board

Inside another

Neighborhood, a sign

That says

We are there

(don’t come looking for us

here)

x

We hide

We want to hide

From judgment

Real or imagined

In this, imagined

Is real,

Is enough

x

C L Couch

x

x

(also Hosea 10:8, Luke 23:30, and Habakkuk 2:14)

x

Photo by Hanna Postova on Unsplash

Odesa, Ukraine

x

Judgment on a House of One

Judgment on a House of One

 

And Herod appeared

Before the crowd

In an arena in Judea, to

Proclaim himself

Messiah to the Jews

And to the world

He wore a splendid robe

Of silver

How it must have shone in

The sun

And then

Herod fell

And soon he died

Wasting disease,

At the last

Consumed by worms inside

That, hungered, had their way

Without

As well

How ugly and how awful

That must have been

Against the silver

 

And is this how it is

With those who think they are

In charge

Know how to lead

Must be resplendent at it

In a hided-over ego

And in other, badged ways

Over vainglorious skin?

 

Leaders, supposed, self-styled, or

Otherwise

Even the right ones

Will be judged twice over

Once upon themselves

A second time for those they built up

Or sent away

Or from whom they

Took away small pieces, one piece

By one,

‘Til for the company there was

Little left

But victim service

 

We might not see this, hear it,

Taste the mortal defeat

Touch the dust they have become

There is a reason why

In older times, the judge was

Called

And is

Immortal, invisible

Only wise

 

C L Couch

 

 

(the death of Herod Agrippa is told in the Christian Acts of the Apostles and other ancient sources

it is fictively told in the chapters of I, Claudius by Robert Graves)

 

I should be judged, too, on whom and how I led, when I have led

 

Photo by Vinicius Amano on Unsplash

São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil

this was a color test I was doing with lighting on RGB colors and how the colors affected a piece of creased aluminum. looks like a mountain for me, what do you guys think?

 

 

Victimhood

Victimhood

(a reverie, a study)

 

Evil is too easy

Is it really?

Maybe on the inside

A quick turn, then stay

In that direction

Me, first

You don’t exist

Everything is fodder

For possession

And control

The very stuff of the universe

Should be mine

 

And then it’s gone

I have nothing

There’s a lesson in legacy

The tyrant is forgotten

Except for notes that tell the truth

And finally

The evil ones are burned

Like autumn leaves in the backyard

(how it used to be)

Effigy and memory

 

And was this easy?

Yes, and lazy, too

Everything subverted to

A contract with the luck of the devil

A genie who grants wishes and

Scratch-like

Always laughs the last

Because the house of hell always wins

Once entered by

The gullible who think

That profit is a plot

Hard work is another matter for

Good people

The suckers, so I always thought

The despot

And now I am ash

Blown off the foot in the tread

Of someone righteous

Whose agencies are angels

A surrogacy of judgment

 

My victims

Lazarus

Living in a better house, the house of God forever

While I diminish

To a speck

And then am nothing

No matter left

Nothing

 

C L Couch

 

 

Christopher Michel

Ramesseum in Egypt