Sine Qua Non

It's good to watch faces

show the brains' search
for phrasing. Blank stare,
bunched brow, light in eyes--

words stored in neural bins,
plucked out, strung like beads,
then shipped in blood-drawn
carts along nervous roads

to mouth and tongue and
lips: "Sine qua non--that's it."
And the listenerr repeats:
"Sine qua non--right."

hans ostrom 2025