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2 songs

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Song of Innocence

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If innocence

Means free from guilt

Well, that’s really

Not enough

Innocence must be

Something on its own,

Not the absence

Of anything

Something desirable

A sense of peace

Of grace that we can

Walk with through

The day

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Substance

Not a reflection or

Wishful thinking

Something that knows

The world, the score

And chooses innocence

Knowing,

Even skeptical or cynical

Strong innocence

Elastic

Durable

That knows the score

Not absence of guilt

The born-with quality

Is fine

But the knowing quality

Is better

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Song of Experience

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There’s so little

That I’ve done

Enough to hurt some people

To have been used

By people, too

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Here I am

So tired,

Breathing through

A microphone

A torch song

Emanating

Is that all there is?

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But it isn’t

I think there’s more

More sufficiency

More grace

More life

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And if it seems I’m whining

Or whistling through

My teeth

The saddest tune

Well, I’ve been

Around

Some

With so much more

I’ve never known

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And yet I think

In splinters,

Having this and wanting that

Wishing I’d done that

Wishing I hadn’t

It’s a maddening calculation

At the board

On this side of the gate

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I hope

The tally’s adequate

Or maybe we could

Toss the numbers

Into the moving water

Dividing worlds

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C L Couch

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Hope Valley, Peak District, UK

Photo by Magda V on Unsplash

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