x = space)
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x
While I Was Writing
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On the news just now,
A hypersonic missile
Purportedly in China
China denies it
We want the same thing
China isn’t evil
Though sometimes
Sometimes we are evil
We all should know better
And we do
We do what we hate
Give it a name,
Security
Secure would be
Not to have these things
In Xanadu,
Kublai Khan decreed
An extraordinary place
And I hope everyone was fed
There
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C L Couch
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Alhambra de Granada
Photo by Jorge Fernández Salas on Unsplash
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(x = space)
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Discover the Abandoned Sites of Brooklyn
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Where you lived
Is an abandoned site in Brooklyn
I visited you once
Never knew your agenda
I think it changed
Between the invitation and arrival
The visit wasn’t fun
You didn’t talk
I didn’t listen
Then it was over
You wrote to ease your mind
I wrote back truth, as it turns out,
Never heard from you again
You moved on
With your plans
And, you know,
That was that
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C L Couch
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Untapped New York
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Photo by Mitchell Trotter on Unsplash
Amidst the usual family arguments when attempting to travel via subway, our trip to NYC would not be complete without them. Tuning it out, I managed to capture a neat view of the variety of moods in the city. The subway is an efficient and well-used mode of transport in the city, you’re never short of people to fill your frame.
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(x = space)
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Greenwood
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Pleasant name, pleasant place,
I’m sure
But a hundred years ago
The neighborhood was burning,
Smoldering, ruining
Owners gone or rounded up, arrested,
And confined
And it would take a hundred years
To talk about at all,
At all well
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A campaign of hours,
One side had more guns
And a pretense of law enforcement
That on other days
Might have worked fine
x
But now
So many deputized
Self-deputized
More simply self-righteous
Took aim, fired
Then burned buildings,
One of the first of them a church
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Were they prideful,
The Greenwood people?
Did they enjoy their luxury?
A colony of prosperity
In what turned out to be
Enemy-occupied land,
Though they had helped
To fight the war
Against the worst
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Say what you will,
There is relief in owning something
And despair when it is taken—maybe
You know the feeling
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So many who lost more
And life as more
x
And had evidence
Of their lives
Buried without markings,
Without marking the
Rage and guilt
That killed them
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But it’s in such a pleasant
Place
And the neighborhood so
Pleasantly named,
Imbued with rest
That someday will return
To those who know it best for
Want,
For dreaming
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C L Couch
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Photo by Hayden Scott on Unsplash
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City Of Tulsa To Resume Search For Possible Mass Graves At Oaklawn Cemetery (news9.com)
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(x = space)
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Memorial Day in the USA
(2021)
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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
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There are days like this
Around the world,
As there should be:
Remembrances of those
Who fought and
Died in war
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The wisdom of strategy
And final choices
Is not on the program;
Like the Light Brigade,
There are those
Who served
Because they served
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Remember them,
Because their loss
Is the foundation
For unfought
Wars over silent
Battlefields
That were and are
And will be,
Someday
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C L Couch
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Golden Stars
Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash
World War II Memorial, Independence Avenue Southwest, Washington, DC, USA
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(x = space)
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Proportional Response
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It’s an eye for eye
Without, we hope,
Everyone going blind
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But then the blind we have,
Over-sensate in four ways,
Might have to lead
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The only ones who know
How to have sight
Without the eyes
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C L Couch
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https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-u-carries-airstrike-against-233431848.html
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By Airman 1st Class Chad Warren – US Air Force Public Affairs [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7377988
A flight of F-15C Eagles from the flies during a solar eclipse in Okinawa July 22, 2009.
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(x = space)
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x
made manifest
(for the USA and everyone may read along)
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in this country where we
pander to the rich
so that we might keep
our jobs
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in which we patronize
the royalty of other
nations
x
where are we with our own?
because there should be
no one hungry here,
no one who cannot easily drink
safe water,
where no one who wants a job
can’t have one,
where shelter exists for
everyone,
where there is some assurance of
peace,
where everyone can breathe
x
this should be our nation,
the greatest on the Earth
we say
but then
we can boast
a model to the other lands
and take action for all needs
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and all of us
on planet Earth,
thinking of launching for
other places
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c l couch
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photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash
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(x = space)
x
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Rescue Time
x
1
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Monday
Is remembrance
And for some reason
(for that reason?)
A deadline for
Medicare plans
x
We remember days
Invaded and sometimes
Days invading:
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Sixth of June
In Normandy,
Sometimes Grenada
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Remembrance to
Become a kind of normalcy;
We turn it
Into ritual,
A plain on which to
Cry
However smally
And to celebrate,
Wave small flags
Attending on parades
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Later or before
By gravestones or
With photo albums
x
2
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We’ll have
So many reasons
To remember now
With names and with dates
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We could remember
As we go
x
The numbers needing
To dealt with
For what they mean
In bodies
And the layers of
What they mean,
What has been lost
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Talk of remembrance
Ironically
Or,
Ignoring politics,
Through the heart
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C L Couch
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4380 CA-46 W, Paso Robles, United States
Paso Robles
(https://www.brucemunro.co.uk/
https://www.travelpaso.com/blog/post/your-virtual-escape-to-paso-robles/)
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(x = space)
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To Pilgrim
(at Thanksgiving, USA)
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Pilgrims
On Thanksgiving
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We make fun
Of their hats
And buckles
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They might as well
Have been a foreign
People to the
(rest of the)
Whites as all the
Indigenous to
The whites
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And they were:
They were a foreign
People
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They carried faith
And dignity,
Faith in dignity,
To what all the western
Coastal, European
People called
A new world
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Through stratagem
Or accident, they
Settled too far
North
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They struggled;
They strove
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Everything was
Struggling and
Striving to them
x
Moving, going
On their way
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For them, to be
A pilgrim was
An action
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On a journey
Neverending, ‘til
The end of this life
Start into another
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C L Couch
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Photo by Dhimas Widrayato on Unsplash
It was 22:39, I went out to get some fresh air after some coding session then I saw a big moon on the sky, so I grab my camera then go to open space to shot this picture. The photo was taken in Tangerang, Indonesia.
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Anticipation
(in pandemic time)
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A day of
Thanksgiving
Is a week or so
From now
x
The Canadians
Had theirs on
Traditional
Columbus Day
And my sister’s
Birthday
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We could combine
The two (not
the birthday) and
Thank first people
For tying up our
Boats, once
We got here
And then have
A national apology
Day for what was
Done to them
Next and since
It’s going to be
A bitterer day,
Anyway
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Maybe we should
Thank the thankless
For a change,
Which would add
Some sweetness
x
And bittersweet
Ain’t bad
x
There’s wisdom
In it, for it’s
A quality
Both positive
And tempered
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A good
Thanksgiving,
USA, once we get
There and in
Anticipation
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C L Couch
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By Visitor7 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27155416
Ketchup Bottles at Fullers Coffee Shop
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(sorry, the image is especially enigmatic—a combination of the title, a song, and an advertisement)
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clcouch123 
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