Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Under the Heat Domes

Near the supermarket (and what
an American word that is), crows
peck at a crumpled bag from

a fast-food place; a woman begs
(her sign says "ANYTHING HELPS/
GOD BLESS"); and a two-acre

parking lot fills with cars
that face each other in lines
like 18th century troops.

The windshields glare.
The black tires roast.
Car alarms start to twitch.

I'm just another ghost
in training, pushing an empty
cage on wheels, headed

toward a section called Produce,
an Impressionist's or Cubist's
heaven of colors & shapes invented

by soil, trees, bushes, stalks,
and vines. Much of the Northern
Hemisphere today is on fire

and under heat domes. The
supermarket's air-cooling
machines crank out false breeze

in the false peace of retail space.

Saturday, March 7, 2020

Sand

Shapes of accumulated sand
reminded us we live among and are
insconstant forms:
a dune arcs, sags, collapses, reappears,
swells. We're

spending one long shifty afternoon
at a beach. Waves
unload more sand, delivery after
delivery. Land
tries to give it back. Projections

suggest the entire province
soon will be composed of sand.
What is soon? What is
a province? We're delirious

and barefoot. That lump there
used to be a castle. That
ocean there is coming for us.


hans ostrom 2020

Monday, January 13, 2020

Under a Roof, Wondering

Environmental doom, catastrophic war: these clots
of syllables squat in my mind when my mind

prefers to ponder cold rain coming in from
the Pacific, coming down with uncanny steadiness,

crackling on roofs and windows like spiders
wearing cleats. I order fresher syllables to arrive

carrying different ideas--rivulets, storm, traffic
rush, water (water!) I offer them a hot beverage,

tell them to let their vowels and consonants
rest a while, because I feel like just hanging out

with some words tonight, under a roof, wondering.


hans ostrom 2020

Monday, August 19, 2019

Local Residents Are Disturbed


      (found poem based on news headlines)


Disgruntled diner shoots waiter
to death over sandwich delay. Girl
dies after being left in hot car.
"Stand your ground" trial begins
in killing over handicapped
parking spot. Giant hand statue
touches down in New Zealand
and local residents are disturbed.
At least 6 teens are shot at Houston
"instant house party" organized
on Snapchat. A man has been
arrested for allegedly threatening
to shoot up a Jewish center in Ohio.
Lynching reemerges in new rhetoric
of hate. Fracking prompts global
spike in atmospheric methane,
study shows. Climate change
to shrink economies of rich
and poor, hot and cold countries
alike. Hottest month on record
for the planet, scientists say.


hans ostrom 2019



Friday, October 19, 2018

The Sea Has Its Say

Seas always have their say.
Winds and rivers, too.
They're preparing new things
to tell us, even as
we think we've heard it all.


hans ostrom 2018

Monday, August 14, 2017

Cooling Crow

This city's hot and smoky: fires
in British Columbia, climate change.
My acquaintances the crows are
suffering. I daily provide them
food, water, and a target for their ire
(me).  Today though they're really hurting.

On a wire, one of them looks
straight up at sky and opens
his mouth.  The bifurcated beak
looks like an enormous black
clothespin. This is the posture
of crow prayer.  God will listen.

God made crow. (Don't tell crow!)
This is the posture of a performed
aria in a silent crow opera. This
is crow cooling off. ( You knew
it would be dramatic.) This is rare
crow, too hot to caw complaints.


hans ostrom 2017