(x = space)
x
x
amen, amen, amen, amen, amen
(you can sing it)
x
there were good hymns
in church
and a couple that were sleepy
the sermon was terrific
for being true and in style easy
as if we could believe
afterward
and live it through the new week that
all this was meant to serve
amen
x
c l couch
x
x
photo by channel 82 on unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Who Slew 3G?
x
Phone’s dead
As in a horror movie
When the characters
Feel progressively
Closed in
And the killer starts
To take them,
One by one
x
It’s a sad day
It’s a widespread problem
For the company
And the old people’s plans
Like my plan
Time to pay one way
Or the other for
The lack of service
All the promises
Smiling gray faces
Provided
x
Bakelite phones
With wires
Newspapers
Made of paper
Talking with each other
On the street
Sending the urgent telegram
These might be making
Returns
Should we need to share
In an analog world
Again
x
A horror movie
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Ilinca Roman on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
Memorial Day in the USA
(2021)
x
It is a holiday in the USA
I suppose the sales are good
And there will be
Shiny fireworks
Reminding us the day means,
Well, something
x
There are days like this
Around the world,
As there should be:
Remembrances of those
Who fought and
Died in war
x
The wisdom of strategy
And final choices
Is not on the program;
Like the Light Brigade,
There are those
Who served
Because they served
x
Remember them,
Because their loss
Is the foundation
For unfought
Wars over silent
Battlefields
That were and are
And will be,
Someday
x
C L Couch
x
x
Golden Stars
Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash
World War II Memorial, Independence Avenue Southwest, Washington, DC, USA
x
(x = space)
x
x
Tell the Beadle
x
I had church today with friends
Five hundred miles from here,
And I am thankful
x
I’m not sure what it means or
How it counts, and I guess mostly
I don’t care
x
There was prayer and conversation,
And God was mentioned many
Times and Jesus
x
I think if there were an attendance
Book, our names could be
Fairly entered
x
As it is, computers have recorded
In theirs pathways our participation so
Cybernetic stars
x
C L Couch
x
x
Sayq, Ad Dakhiliyah Governorate, Oman
x
Sister Moon
(song by Francis, metaphor by Zeffirelli)
I cannot fathom Clare
Understand her depths
I do not have to
I’ll readily admit
She is beyond me
Companion to Francis except
Well, except it was boy and girl
(convicted young)
And in communities
Established one gender from the other,
I’m not sure how much
They could be together
Though I imagine them working
Side by side with nascent followers
And I want to think of them
Playing games as well
Between bouts
Of growing things
(vegetables and campaigns)
Washing the poor
Wishing the church into a better place
For service and to any
Could she have gone with him to meet the
Sultan as
A missionary team
In hardship, danger
Doctrinal snares
And opportunities as well
For the sultan (as was the pope)
Was powerful and smart
Well, too much is binary
I should not define one by the other
She was her own
She has it
Who chose to become God’s and his,
The moon in canticle
So sing to the sun
Brother, we are here
We dress the sky above the earth
In dreams
In daylight, we work hard
Harder than our flesh can bear
Than flesh can bear all orders of our calling
At night and for all times
All things
We pray
Be with me, brother, as at Mizpah
When we are apart
Consider the stars at night
I the clouds by day
We are in each other
Inside God’s creation
And the same calling,
The announcement of redemption
While working to save mortal lives
Upon the ground
C L Couch
Detail depicting Saint Clare from a fresco (c. 1320) by Simone Martini in the Lower basilica of San Francesco, Assisi
Simone Martini – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=154878
Feet, Do Your Thing
We have enough to do
It’s good—work a job, earn money
Make a home
Have a way to get around
Have life
I don’t mean to say that it’s enough
For now or for a few
Or for a multitude
There should be more
We know that
Take a breath
Inhale, then remember to exhale
Let something out that’s maybe been kept
Inside too long
Now, something more
Service is good
What we can do, we should
I’ll take an open door, a meal hosted
By a friend
Growth through a colleague
Or a stranger encountered
These are by someone else
By my own hand if not design,
I can listen
By hearing with all senses
I can send a message
To encourage
Like first valentines
For love of those held down
A martyr in a cell
I feel just a little rested
I’m still poor in most things
But I can do
When there’s gas in the car,
Give a ride
Level up the change at the store
As a donation to a cause
No one takes issue with
(or maybe takes, so what)
Take a walk and smile a little to the world
Is that hoke?
I should take my chances
C L Couch
Photo by Jake Hills on Unsplash
the title, I keep thinking–I know (now) there is a song with it in the title; but I think I heard it in a cartoon or an old movie
Ask Any Soldier
“When your friend
Gets killed, part of you
Gets killed”
A testimony and
Remembrance for
USA Memorial Day
Which I can only
Guess is right since
I have friends gone
In other ways, and
They and those parts
Of me yet feel lost
To lose through war
When targets seem
A random strategy:
Colors, shapes, tribes
On a map or guessed
At over a hill
Loss of life or partial
Life must feel
The height of
Unselected cruelty
On a pillar of
Senselessness
If a citizen salute
Might count, then
Listen to one
Expressing in
Tribute to
Patriot sacrifice
And personal
Complexity in
Service
Thanks is not enough,
So memory is offered
And legacy of
Better nations
C L Couch
(quotation from the AHC channel)
Vaccines
(a polio center bombed in
Pakistan, because of
serving)
I lived in the cities where
Salk and Sabin worked
Which does not matter
As much as the reality of
Vaccines
Diphtheria, polio, small
Pox, and malaria;
Millions—millions—died
From Spanish Flu in
The last (twentieth)
Century
These diseases are now
Resolved and most are gone
With vaccines and other
Helps except for those
Ravages that were not
Cured except through time,
For we hadn’t means to
Cure
We still look at this
Challenge, though it
Seems we’re getting
Better
I don’t know how those
Against vaccination really
Feel, maybe because I’ve
Only experienced the
Good
I’ve had mild symptoms
Of that for which I’ve
Been given shots—that’s
In the nature of vaccines—but
I’ve not suffered fully from
Diseases or conditions
Against which I’m
Protected
Now, due to a condition (not
Vaccine-related), I’m toward
The top of the list of those
Who should receive flu
Shots
Any reservations
Notwithstanding, I get the
Shot
Those who refuse risk
Infecting others, though
I respect the hesitation
If I cannot ally the
Principle
Yet those who turn down
And those who protest this
Medical opportunity are
Not bombing doctors’ offices
Or clinics where these
Serve
Though, I must say, that in
This free land, some
Take issues to extremes
To destroy clinics of
Another medical kind thus
Surrender being human in
Becoming the extreme and little
More
But on a day in Pakistan
I’ve read further in the news
About
Bombing a polio clinic
Addressing a disease that
Can be veritably
Eradicated
If this terroristic vision
(An irony of shots)
Could be realized, then there
Would be outbreaks of laming
And of crippling infection
Without recourse except
The best (the worst) of
Luck
When we can cure, we
Are at our best;
What can be said for
Those who hunt down
All those who can and
Now must more bravely
Cure
clcouch123 
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