“Instead of Hell” by Rae Cobbs

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Life is violent—always was, always will be.
Not just human nature dictates storms like this,
or volcanoes, earthquakes, mudslides, fires,
drought and cancer, AIDS and plague, new
resistant bacteria causing new horrific deaths.

There is also the repression of the church,
deep within our modern living, from freethinkers’
points of view, the fake superiority of the avant garde.
Even Freud makes me think of fraud, so narrow
in his male perspective; therefore psychiatry
and madness qualify suspicion. Nothing’s free.

The evening news acts as our Church of the Event,
in case we ever think our work and hopes can make
a better world. For me, each perception counts:
the midget katydid that feels my nose, then hops
aboard, the cleansing of the distant thunder,
a firefly inside by chance to light the dark.

The grip of love inside your chest, the beauty of
your newborn child, peace moving in the trees,
the silence when two people read, or one can wake
and get up quietly to put on tea, memories of clover
scent, alfalfa fields in fullness, even the caress
of wine on tongues, fire sparks sent skyward by
the ocean pushing salty air. Oh, lifting laughter,
rambunctious quiet walks of males past females,
visa verse, one touch on the arm from an old love,
the comfort of a partner’s energetic eyes—all these
are serene, to equal failing love’s delinquent grace.

-Rae Cobbs

228 thoughts on ““Instead of Hell” by Rae Cobbs”

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