I Don't Know Why

I'm sitting in an office
and I don't know why.
I'm sitting on a sidewalk
and I don't know why.

Sitting in a Legislative Body,
sitting in a fork-lift, sitting
in a jail cell and I don't
know why. Lying

on a road, lying on a bed,
lying in a casket and very
very dead, and I don't know
why.

Standing up for someone,
for something, I don't know
why. Standing still in
panic. Why? Nobody

knows why. Nobody really
knows why they do what they
do. Practical answers
buy time. But eventually,

the why prevails, unyielding.
And you have to sit there
and admit, maybe only to
yourself, that you don't know why.


hans ostrom 2019