Cinquain: Cold Rain

Icy

rain raids here from
the West. Puddles become
ponds that ducks populate. Yes, we
shiver.

hans ostrom 2025

The Goddess Dusk

At dusk

she reclines, a
goddess infused with gold
light, luxuriant in liquid
soft warmth.

hans ostrom 2025

painting by Alphonse Mucha (1899)

Civilization

I smiled

at a stranger
today and she smiled back.
Civilized, that
moment.

hans ostrom 2025

Cinquain for a Spring-Fevered Cat

The cat

seems fevered by
the warmth and light outside
his lair, this house. He yowls and runs around,
Spring-zinged.

Hans Ostrom 2024

Treat It

Forty

thousand people
in the U.S. get shot
per year. Guns, guns, guns.
Symptomatic, I think, of an awful
disease. Oh, treat
it, please.

Hans Ostrom 2023

The Burst

Garden's

green about to
burst into pink and red,
yellow, purple, lavender, white.
Late May.

hans ostrom 2023

Hovering Sipper

I expanded the cinquain form here to 7 lines--a septtain? 2, 4, 6, 8, 6, 4, 2 syllables per line. Syllabics can be pleasurable--for the writer, at least--sometimes. 

Hovering Sipper

A hum-
ming bird, its back
iridescent green, its
gray wing-blur wrapping its body,
sips shots from the powder blue
rosemary blooms.
April.