Tears Like Clean Rain

She cries, not easily, but as needed--

hard, and fast. Her tears flow like clean rain.
Fear, anxiety, grief, affection, gratitude, empathy--
all get cut loose into sobs. Ex-pressed. Such
a show of strength! Me, I learned

to pin down big emotions with clamps.
To control them--as if! To get quickly
to the duty of endurance. To stand as a rock
in a deluge. Such a show of isolation!
When tears do come they leak out
as if from some ancient, buried drought.

hans ostrom 2022

Boo Hoo

Once I started crying,
I didn't stop. A sizzling
lahar of salt tears poured
out. Buildings of my
interior life fell over.
Hurricanes and typhoons
raked shaky coasts
where grief had lived
in mansions.

Geysers of weeping
spewed, and a billion
drums pounded iron
roofs with rain. All

my brilliant boats went
belly up or bow down.
In the end I stood like a stone
statue in a swamp
and wondered what another
day might bring or take.

Tactically, I'll revisit
stoicism and make my way
back to a dry plateau
where dead brush hisses
in hot wind. Home at last.



hans ostrom 2019