Overheard in an Airport Security Line

 "And I'm, like, look! Oh, gross!"

                    *
"Believe it. Reincarnation is real."
                    *
"Her boss says she needs to learn
more aout what she's selling so she
can sell more of what she's trying
to sell."
                  *
"When we get to Tijuana, we should
rent a Mazerati."
                  *
"I'm not sure why I travel anymore."

Hans Ostrom 2024

Broken Airport

The terminal takes its name literally,

is a disintegrating destination.
Flights cancelled, transport stuck.
Even a nun mouths the word, "Fuck."

Inside haggard people and swollen luggage
congeal like snow outside. The enraged become
resigned; the patient, stupefied. Jabbed
and punched by questions, employees
in company colors look like boxers
in late rounds. Everyone begins to resemble

everyone else. Distinctive personalities
melt into smeared canvas of weariness,
smothered rage, drunkenness, and hysteria.

People become their uncomfortable bodies.
Quickly clothes and hair get greasy.
Clean diapers become Black Market
currency. Bartenders become celebs.

Some people stand at windows,
achieve Zen peace by staring at airplanes
now ridiculous--aluminum sculptures
on tiny wheels, their cruising altitude
a myth beyond the lid of sky
that's been dropped on the airport.

hans ostrom

She Recalls the Airport in Sacramento

She remembers

sitting stoned in the Sacramento
airport, which in no way
seemed excited about air travel.
To her, the jetways looked
like rectangular caterpillars
with accordions
in place of heads: polka!

People getting off airplanes
seemed like tourists
returned from Dante's Hell,
only scuffed, but disappointed.

Some endless minutes saw
her mind go blank like a TV
that received but could not
broadcast or stream.

Airplanes napped in weird
corners of the tarmac.
Gate agents spoke
laconically on the intercom.
Contagious yawning rippled
among waiting travelers.

Sacramento: an airport next
to farmland--relaxed, unimportant,
laid all the way back--all, all
the way back, she recalls
through glazed windows of the mind.

hans ostrom 2023

Keep It Simple

 "Be quick, but don't hurry." --John Wooden

At the clotted airport cafe, a holiday swarm:
the woman orchestrating sandwiches,
unrushed but quick, wears a hajib--

a scarf that finishes by falling
to the middle of her back. Forest green.
A light-gray top and elegant black

trousers accompany. Llke me,
she's part of this society, I'm equal
to her, except if I worked at

the sandwich station in this
bee-hive moment, I'd be fired,
a mercy. Something

about forest green, light gray,
and black: austere, soothing.
Evergreens, mist rising from a river.

hans ostrom 2022

At the Airport

airplanes not flying
sniff gates sadly. they
are too big too enter


hans ostrom 2018

The Boarding Process Is About to Begin

At this time, we would like to begin
pre-boarding, which may be be thought of
as paradoxical boarding because it is part
of the boarding process it precedes.

We would like to invite anyone
who is in deep despair to board
at this time, as well as any children
traveling with overbearing parents,
invertebrates flying alone, and good
people (there's usually at least one!).

If your carry-on item is larger
than King Henry VIII's coffin,
please let us know.

Now we incite those with no
particular status to revolt
against categories.

Thank you.

We now invite White people
who believe they are
inherently superior to lift
their arms and pretend to fly
around in front of the gate here.
Okay, that's enough.

Finally, we invite those
who are acutely or chronically
tardy to board the goddamned plane.

It is truly our pleasure to serve you:
how could that possibly be true?


hans ostrom 2015

"First Class Boarding," by Hans Ostrom

At the airport,
the difference
between
the general-boarding area
and
the First Class one
consists of a rug
on which First Class
was stitched
by a machine.
Also a short blue nylon band
suggests a barrier
between
the two areas.
These things we do.
These distinctions we make.


hans ostrom 2014