Covenant-Keeping

(x = space)

x

x

Covenant-Keeping

x

We grieve

That is the right response

x

It happens right away

And is ongoing

x

Mostly it’s the loss

And who’d have thought

x

Regardless

Of the news

x

It should happen

On a school day?

x

While we still think

Of school days

x

The days when

Sun and light should happen

x

On the playground

Or we stay inside

x

When tension in the classroom

Over subjects is enough

x

How did we make the trade

Of shoes on tile

x

For the reports

Of guns instead?

x

For now it is the loss

We don’t want

x

To imagine

Even though there are

x

Those who must

See and hear

x

And every other sense

Invest

x

In the lifting

And the carrying away

x

Even then,

Through the earthly horror

x

There is what’s inside

Now gone

x

To grieve the most

Shock, fear, crashing grief

x

Anger and activity

And needful inactivity

x

Maybe someday about

The keeping and the letting go

x

C L Couch

x

x

What unfolded today: Former student Audrey Elizabeth Hale, age 28, kills three children, three adults at Nashville elementary school; cops gun down attacker

x

Dark Peony

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

x

The Two-Day Turn

(x = space)

x

x

The Two-Day Turn

x

Today is the day

After Labor Day

And the start of school

As God intended

The god of summer

And the god of learning

Negotiate

And merge

And tilt the seasons

So that the picnic on the holiday

Is sweet and sweeter

With only a bit

Like a zest in soup or cake

Of disappointment

x

And with the bittersweet

We sleep inside the hours

Of the change

Waking up to fall term

With excitement

Now with the zest

Of jitters

x

So the seasons’ wizened-wise divinities allow

So I think

They prefer

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash x

Doctor William Kennedy

(x = space)

x

x

Doctor William Kennedy

(professor of theatre)

x

Lord, love a duck

It’s an expression or the title

Of a show

My roommate and I

Used to pass it back and forth

On birthdays

Happy Birthday, Lord Luvaduck

A USA way to have a title

x

This was in school

He did well

I did well

I hated it

But liked him

His strength and creativity

His creativity

Intelligent as he was tall

I’m not sure what that means

Except that he was six-and-a-half

Feet tall

And maybe a little more

I liked his parents, too

And his brother

Also very smart

x

I wish we’d stayed in touch

And we did, a little

We wrote Happy Birthday to each other

And I tried to say something clever

(he was clever)

Then and now and then

I tried

To let him know I cared

x

He had

A good, steady career

And was much-loved at his workplace

It said so on the website

x

We got old

He got sick

He died

A couple of years ago

There was no one to tell me

I had to find out

Recently

I suppose in a world

In which electrons carry messages

More so than people speaking

Out loud,

This must happen

x

He went by Bill

I miss him

I can so easily

See him across the desk

Smart man

Faithful

He liked Dad’s root beer

We watched ‘70s television

We met onstage

Roommating was his idea

Good idea

x

C L Couch

x

x

“Lord love a duck!” is an expression of astonishment and relief; also the title of a novel, said novel used to make a feature film

[I used electrons to find this out]

x

Photo by Manos Gkikas on Unsplash

x

Robb Elementary School, After

(x = space)

x

x

Robb Elementary School, After

x

Irony of welcome

We know this

You are welcome now

Not your guns

Not your murderous intent

You may have a troubled mind

And still come in

There are counselors

In school and life

But really you should come here

For a reason

That not only fits the mission

But also the constituency

x

Parents of our learners

Patrons of

Our special programs

Library volunteers

Or other signed-up, cleared

Helpers

We want our school

To be good

We want to welcome you

Bienvenidos

x

C L Couch

x

Outside, underneath the name Robb Elementary School, there is a greeting, Bienvenidos.  Welcome to our school.

x

x

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

x

Untimely

(x = space)

x

x

Untimely

x

I want to sense

The world around me

I suppose most of us do

Even if the world

Has been

An awful place

From time to time

x

It is our home

It’s what we have

And should we leave

Before it’s time

Our absence will be

Missed

By angels in the cosmos

x

There will be keening

As the rings of heaven

Move against

Each other

In a way

They’re not supposed to

x

C L Couch

x

for all the children killed in schools

x

x

Kids hopscotch game in playground.

Photo by Eric Tompkins on Unsplash

Silver Springs, Florida, USA

x

Day 181

Day 181

 

It’s Friday afternoon

Day 180’s passing

And so the children should be

Out of school for summer

Last rides in yellow buses

For a while

 

They can populate the stores

For a time

And visit in each residence

Pets should be happier

For the company

And lemonade or something like

Becomes a commodity

 

I don’t mean to say

It’s all sugary

Some will need work,

Too many will go hungry

There will be

Pain from separations of all kinds

 

But some will take trips

They will enjoy

And though not expressed,

Wear a new kind of gratitude

 

As a child,

My summers weren’t idyllic

But I couldn’t help from time to time

First relief, then

Reveling in freedom

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Luiz Guimaraes on Unsplash

 

Western Movie Theatre in Oxford, Ohio

Western Movie Theatre in Oxford, Ohio

 

There was a summer when

I felt especially alone

I was at school

Everyone else was gone

So I went to the movies

Two dollars for admission

 

For two dollars, I saw The Last Starfighter

Then on another night, Highlander

Music by Queen

Sci-fi reigned, I guess

Taking me somewhere I wasn’t,

Which at the time was really

Needful like coal

For an empty furnace

 

It’s no longer there

The theatre or the summer

I got an X from the marquee

Before everything shut down

 

C L Couch

 

 

By Michael Gäbler, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31083077

Rodgers Theatre in Poplar Bluff in Missouri. This Art Deco-style theater opened in 1949.

 

Corazón

Corazón

 

Can I write about this now?

Maybe a sabbath day will help

It’s the living, you know

They cannot have that

The people of Puerto Rico

Spanish and Taino

Legacy of colony

Self-determination that we prize

So much is always mollified

Into a chance for daily life

And that is gone and has been for such

A long, long while

 

We chose this for them

Our nation did not free them

Did not favor statehood

Rendered a possession in a war

With Spain

One set of owners to another

Arecibo’s there

Ancient San Juan with El Moro

But life is dark

Because there’s no electricity

For so many

For so many

 

It’s a litany of labor

Living that does not allow for expectation:

What might we have today

Food that has not spoiled

Walls that are dry at last of storm

Our children start school soon

Will there power in the classroom

Or at home for studying?

The nation could answer affirmative

We haven’t

 

We could build them back

And Texas, too

And, yes, handle the wildfires

In the golden state

And all the shootings in Chicago

We’re reactive

Here’s a tragedy

Could be our finest set of hours

What is it

They’re mestizo?

We don’t know five hundred years of conflict

To comfort?

We’re unaware of what is manufactured

That we need?

 

I’m asking

Because we made a claim

Because we have the navy there

And look for understanding in the stars

 

So maybe we can listen for

Ayúdanos

 

C L Couch

 

 

Free photo: El Moro Puerto Rico – structure, washed, worn – Non …

Jooinn

El Moro Puerto Rico, structure, washed, worn, stone

 

The Ashburn Old School

The Ashburn Old School “on the edge”

of Washington, D.C., Vandalized Last

Night

 

Might I apologize for an entire color?

I can’t—I didn’t make it, nor do I feel

intense affiliation.  But whites (I figure

whites) have defaced an old school on

the cusp of finished restoration.  An

old school that had been inhabited by

black students and, I guess, an all-black

staff.  The problem in apologizing for

criminals is that I don’t know them.  I

don’t know that kind of ugliness in hate.

I don’t get the relish manifest through

stupid, destructive action.  I am sorry

though in a general, human way.  I

apologize for all of us who are blind

when we can only see one color.  I can

praise and thank you who are of color,

as all are, and who make strides by reaching

in and lifting up learning and the story,

however dismal certain chapters must

become.  Learning is triumphant and,

we know, shall overcome.

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/03/racist-graffiti-historic-black-school-virginia?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+morning+briefing+2016&utm_term=193179&subid=16706344&CMP=ema_a-morning-briefing_b-morning-briefing_c-US_d-1