Walking in Snow

You're walking in snow,

knowing you know
that you're heaving breath,
  that your feet sink with each step,
  that your face gets raw from cold.

Watch your lungs make clouds.
Listen to wind stir trees
and see it tease
  boughs into dumping snow.
    A deep blue, black-headed
      Steller's jay lands on a liberated
        branch. And cack-cack-cackles.

This small unclothed, unshod
creature finds hilarity in snow
  You do not.
    Do not.
      Just don't.

hans ostrom 2025

Remember: It's About Adaptability

A gull with a fish in its mouth
flies low. A steller's jay cackles
maniacally as it dives toward a
task. Comes a couple of woos
like wind through a hole in a wall:
a dove. Crows shift their feet
on a street corner as if considering
a labor strike, a starling
gossips at the top of a pole,
and a hummingbird, tough
as a boot, not cute, pierces
awareness. All of this within
an hour's time. Birds seem
to own this place, mortgage
free, indefinitely. They're better
at Earth-living than we.


hans ostrom 2018