Showing posts with label roads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roads. Show all posts

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Where the Roads Go

 And soon the roads will take you to
The place that has no roads
And there you will be lost to time,
Old traveler. The forest will absorb you.
(The roads themselves will be absorbed.)

The birds are always well aware
They must make room for other birds.
And every raging storm
Leaves codes for future storms.

The continent of language
Your brain has built itself
To let you play with signs
And sounds will vanish--yes,
The moment your mind leaves 
Its road, your unique ways 

Of seeing, saying--indeed,
The World you birthed--
Will vanish like one breath
Into the air of all the breaths
Breathed ever in their time. 


hans ostrom 2024

Thursday, April 13, 2023

1971: Ernie's Epiphany



A massive black car rocks like a boat
as it roars down a dirt road on bald tires.
The driver's shirtless, stoned, and drunk
in desert heat. He smokes a cigarette
with one eye scrunched against the smoke.

He becomes aware he's barreling
down a road, eating dust, sucking
smoke, smelling like a goat,
and seeing double. Also, the radio's
just died. He pulls over

and stops, kills the engine. The
cloud of dust passes by. He listens
to the desert singing scorched blues.

He rests his head on the hot
black steering wheel--which
now seems to him an absurd
auto part. Out loud he says,

"I don't know what I'm doing
or why." Pause. "Well, I guess
that's a confession to build on.
He opens the glove box,
shoves the unloaded pistol
aside, and takes out a map.