Showing posts with label thunderstorms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thunderstorms. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

The Horses of Summer

The horses of summer
flew through the pastures,
tails  and manes
terrific in the wind.

In the overfull cities,
the horses of summer
lugged vegetable carts
and beer barrels,
hauled carriages of wealth
and tourists, endured
heavy policemen.

High on an alpine ranch,
one old horse stood in a time-grayed
barn as lightning burnt
the sky and thunder rattled
boards and bones.

She ate hay, farted,
and slept. 

And in the ignited
desert, a spotted horse
drank deeply from
a black trough and flinched
at the gunfire. 


hans ostrom 2023

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Fulguriators

The Etruscans employed fulguriators--
interpreters of lightning strikes.
Jagged, sizzling bolts wrought phrases,
injected warnings, illumined portents,
and brought the heat.  And may I say,
what a great job: Critic of Lightning.
It fuses meteorology, magic, entertainment,
theology, and serious scholarship.

There had to have been fulguriator
conferences, with newsletters (on
baked tablets) with articles like
"Towards a Theory of Lighting
Semantics," "The Neglected Importance
of Thunder," and "'Don't Sit Under
a Tree': Common Mistakes in
Fulguriation." My own

insights into lightning have been
wanting, focused on risk of wildfire,
fear of electrocution, and thoughts
of B-Horror movies. I know
I can do better, like the Etruscans.



hans ostrom 2017