Battle Cry

(x = space)

x

x

Battle Cry

x

The war goes on

I know war from

Reading

All Quiet on the Western Front

Johnny Got His Gun

The Red Badge of Courage

Funny war in

Catch-22

Romantic war in

Anything by Alistair MacLean

And

The Lord of the Rings

I’ve seen videos of

Hiroshima,

And I see images of Ukraine

All of which means

I don’t know anything about war

I don’t know the ripping pain

Of bullets

The sounds from

Many explosions

The sounds of people

Wounded

And the dying

All in states of dying

Mortal life leaving the body

Violent upheaval into judgment

All out of place

Before its time

An outrage of angels

Crying from all sides

The risen and the fallen

I hear stories

Read them

Hear them

Imagine them

And let them in

It’s not the real thing

But it’s something

Enough to think and feel

And cry against

And I have perspective

While those who call for war

Haven’t any

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by British Library on Unsplash

1914, World War 1. Highland Territorials in a trench. Photographer: H. D. Girdwood.

La Gorgue, France

x

Cyber Prayer

(x = space)

x

x

Cyber Prayer

x

God, help

The people of Ukraine

And the Russians who

Protest the war

And are arrested

By autocracy

x

Brave days for faith

And hope

And love

x

Amen

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

Cyberpunk Tunnel

London, UK

x

The Russia Plane

The Russia Plane

 

I’m so sorry

And in this I do not care about

Antipathy between governments

And generations’ leaders

 

Loss of life from Russia

The choir, the humanitarian

Anyone from any place of any kind

Or backing

Agenda no longer counts save

Mother Russia weeping

 

Fill the holes in churches and

In agnostic circles

With salt water from our tears

And Black Sea depths

 

C L Couch

 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/25/asia/russian-military-jet-disappears/index.html?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email

 

Cyrillic Alphabet

Cyrillic Alphabet

 

Here’s what I know, which

Isn’t all that much:

 

Cyril and Methodius travel

To Russia

To send a unifying story

Into tribal affiliations that

Have been

 

Sibling-folk murdering each

Other

For their difference

 

Here’s what the pilgrims

Found

In talking,

That no one knew the word

 

Each one uttering only

What each knew

And deadly ignorance

 

Who could hear?—there

Was no way;

 

Placing sectarian evangelism

Aside (though not

Unloading their first

Purpose),

What the saints gave first

Was language

 

In a unifying word

All could

Listen to at last

 

When the target is no longer

Blank, rather filled

With shapes

And hues

Of understanding,

 

Denial in killing becomes

A challenge

In Impossibility

 

All stories were told,

Fables had new morals;

 

All the letters are now legacy,

Spoken with

Living breath each day

 

The saints are capitalized

I don’t know how

Much they care

 

And people are

Still talking, if

Through veils sometimes

Meet You at G20

Meet You at G20

 

“gaps of trust”

which I first read as “gaps of dust”

USA and Russia

Obama and Putin

 

we cannot see each other

for gaps of dust

which might be all that’s left

if we don’t see better

 

look harder

for the truth of us

 

C L Couch