Grandfather Anthem

I went to a picnic

and played my role:
grandpa. I held the youngest,
9 months old, and sang
a few bars of a song I
made up just for him.
He pushed the side
of my face: everybody's

a critic. I kicked a soccer
ball with the four-year-old,
who calls me "Papi"
and pummels me with the
word Why? in our
conversations. Sometimes
I answer, "I'm not sure,"
which could serve as the
opening line of
a Grandfather Anthem.

hans ostrom 2023

I Don't Know Why

I'm sitting in an office
and I don't know why.
I'm sitting on a sidewalk
and I don't know why.

Sitting in a Legislative Body,
sitting in a fork-lift, sitting
in a jail cell and I don't
know why. Lying

on a road, lying on a bed,
lying in a casket and very
very dead, and I don't know
why.

Standing up for someone,
for something, I don't know
why. Standing still in
panic. Why? Nobody

knows why. Nobody really
knows why they do what they
do. Practical answers
buy time. But eventually,

the why prevails, unyielding.
And you have to sit there
and admit, maybe only to
yourself, that you don't know why.


hans ostrom 2019

Song: Solomon Fry

Solomon Fry never asked why.
He just did what he did
and said what he said.
Solomon Fry.

Solomon Fry sometimes got high.
It deepened his thoughts
about lots and lots.
Oh, Solomon Fry.

Sadly he died,
Solomon Fry,
though he lived
to be very old. 

Goodbye, goodbye,
Solomon Fry.
He died in his sleep,
we were told.

Solomon Fry never asked why.
We asked it instead.
Why is he dead?
Oh, Why did you die,
Solomon Fry?



hans ostrom 2017
(a completely fictional character, as you might have guessed)

"Why?" by Walter de la Mare