"Everything Is Looted," by Anna Akhmatova

"Friends Who Have Failed," by Alan Williamson

"As a Good Tailor Knows," by Jason Shinder

"How Strange," by Gwenolyn B. Bennett

Hiram Displays a Bad Attitude Toward Popular Cinema

Hiram, in his cups, which had been full
of vodka, says, "Let the miserable blob
lay. Lay the miserable fucking blob. Lay
miserly blob. Hey, Miz, lay Miz, Fizz Miz."

I can fill in the rest.  It isn't so much
the genre of musical, or the tears
being squeezed out of melodrama
like hot fat from cooked bacon,
or the celebrity-actors shoved out
in front of the cameras like mannequins
with entourages, or that the Public
eats this shit up, it's the combination
of all five; and more--that gnaws
at Hiram's sense of what is all right.

 "The whole fucking thing . . .," Hiram mumbles.
The combination. The combinations.
That's what gets a body down. In an age
of Packaging, Hiram opposes the Package.


hans ostrom 2013

"Some Hands Are Lovelier," by Mae V. Cowdery

"Dusk," by Mae V. Cowdery

Mentioned Honorably

This is to inform
you that you received
an Honorable Mention
in the recent publication,
Who's Who In Global Obscurity.


hans ostrom 2013

"Paul Robeson," by Gwendolyn Brooks

"Palm," by Rainier Maria Rilke

Sudden Infinity

not sure.
do know history's owned.
driver's ed.

the allies. you remember them.
cut the heads off.
indescribable scene.
sources say myth.
sources say fear.
sources. say.
sources. "the thing is,
he had to have known."

percentages on the back end, said
my friend in Hollywood, which
does not give
does not give
does not give
a
shit.
in other news, we, collectively,
have raised the average
temperature.
what to do?
 did you say, "what to do?"
well then to that i say,
yes, let us ask and let us try
to
answer


hans ostrom 2013

"Dawn" by Angelina Weld Grimke

"Man in a Hole," by Hans Ostrom