In the Beginning

 In the beginning was,

Well, the start. In the start

Was the word. Or the light,

Lux, fiated. Fated? Was

The universe fated to be

And/or not to be? In the 

First place was no place,

Less than a speck, a tiny

Spec-piece of  this period. No,

Really. Out of that

Micro-dot came All.

In that beginning was a Boom-

Bang-Big-Thang. In

The beginning was the end,

A reeling in, an eternal return,

An 8 lying on its side. 

In a human baby’s beginning

Is a grammar, a formal loam

Already ready for sounds,

Signs, words, phrases, phases

Of versation. Hear the toddler

Form past present future,

Possess the prepositions,

Put syntax in the right position. 

All right, light, let it be, let it

Go on, shine forth. In the Begin,

Let's lean in, watch our words,

Listen here, hear, listen:

We're caught in brute matter

And magic, always beginning. 

hans ostrom 2024

The Castle

I built you a castle, using a castle kit. I
staffed it with people who'd worked
in a castle before, castlexperts.

I lived there a while to see what it
was like. The staff were rude. The
British use the plural "were" with "staff."

Anyway, I let the staff go, which is
castle-speak for firing them. I live
alone in the castle now.

I like doing so rather excessively.
I couldn't bear to live in it with
someone else, even you.

So I'm going to move out
and give you the castle. Americans
use "gift" as a verb. Life is a process.


hans ostrom 2016