Monday, December 15, 2025
Sunday, December 14, 2025
Saturday, December 13, 2025
Friday, December 12, 2025
Skeleton
It is a kind of photo you’ve seen
Before--a lot. It’s of a skeleton
The diggers have exposed. They’ve brushed
Away the dirt and clay except
Around the rib-cage. The skeleton,
Antique by human standards, lies on
Its side. You see the skull, the teeth,
The fleshless grin—or grimace? Scream?
This time you press upon the image a
Mortified deep sorrow; no: deeper: shame.
All camouflage and pretense srtipped
Away. No garments, skin, or jewels,
No hair or flesh or flab, organs, blood.
Just the once-used, useless calcium frame,
Which diggers brush. And just the
Gaping mouth. The ideas that person had
Are scattered atoms now--at best.
And yes, you feel death’s scandal, which
A body with its brain must face as fact.
It is no wonder faith in an Otherness appeals.
Before--a lot. It’s of a skeleton
The diggers have exposed. They’ve brushed
Away the dirt and clay except
Around the rib-cage. The skeleton,
Antique by human standards, lies on
Its side. You see the skull, the teeth,
The fleshless grin—or grimace? Scream?
This time you press upon the image a
Mortified deep sorrow; no: deeper: shame.
All camouflage and pretense srtipped
Away. No garments, skin, or jewels,
No hair or flesh or flab, organs, blood.
Just the once-used, useless calcium frame,
Which diggers brush. And just the
Gaping mouth. The ideas that person had
Are scattered atoms now--at best.
And yes, you feel death’s scandal, which
A body with its brain must face as fact.
It is no wonder faith in an Otherness appeals.
hans ostrom 2025
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Monday, December 8, 2025
Sunday, December 7, 2025
The Curator
We think we've recalled
the best segments, short
or long, of life. (Let's leavethe worst on a smoking
slag heap as we speak.)
I know I've blanked many
good moments. I wish I'd
had a curator with me along
the ways to say, "This one,
store this one in the lock box."
If I could only poke around there
in memory with a digger's
trowel and brush. Then hold
up a lost treasured memory to the
sun, and smile, and breathe,
and sit to let the whole
recovered scene fill me
like a room accepting pine scent.
hans ostrom 2025
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