Friday, December 6, 2024
Thursday, December 5, 2024
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
If It Hits the Ground
Words on the side
of a groaning recycling truck:IF IT HITS THE GROUND,
IT HITS THE SOUND--
Puget Sound, an adjunct
to the Pacific Ocean, which
is choked with plastic.
Studying for an advanced
degree in futility, I pick up
as much as I can. Black forks.
Cracked food containers Massive
clear cups. Straws, spoons, bits,
shards, pieces. Tossed from cars.
Thrown down in parking lots.
Debris from mass insanity, is
what it is. Evidence of lethal
indifference. Effluvia of the
Consumocracy. We, the ones
named the persistence of
the fittest (not the strongest),
make ourselves unfit for our
only niche, Earth. If it hits the
ground it hits
a drain, a creek, a culvert,
a ditch, a river, a lake, a Sound,
an ocean, a sea. See? See.
hans ostrom 2024
Monday, December 2, 2024
Vienna
(1980)
1980
How the fuck did I get here? I asked myself.
By train, dummy. Winter. Yes, yes: opera,
history, magnificence, Sigmund. A big so what?
to all of that and more when you're thin
on money, low on rest, and wracked
by mistakes you made. Back "home,"
they'd elected Reagan president. That, children,
was a point of no return. Austria is
of great historical importance. Okay, fine,
but I'm hungry, I thought. So I went out,
and I went out, and I found myself a cafe,
which featured a kind of importance I
required--hot food and wine, buzz of
customers, glowing lights and cigarette
smoke, a blond woman with a wry
smile, and a sense of proportion.
How the fuck did I get here? I asked myself.
By train, dummy. Winter. Yes, yes: opera,
history, magnificence, Sigmund. A big so what?
to all of that and more when you're thin
on money, low on rest, and wracked
by mistakes you made. Back "home,"
they'd elected Reagan president. That, children,
was a point of no return. Austria is
of great historical importance. Okay, fine,
but I'm hungry, I thought. So I went out,
and I went out, and I found myself a cafe,
which featured a kind of importance I
required--hot food and wine, buzz of
customers, glowing lights and cigarette
smoke, a blond woman with a wry
smile, and a sense of proportion.
hans ostrom 2020/2024
Saturday, November 30, 2024
You Are Here
YOU ARE HERE
say maps in museums,
parks, and zoos. You
let your fretting mind
go too far out today.
It strode out on a road
to imagined disaster.
It shook its fist
at doom clouds
overhead. It didn't
let your lungs
take a single easy
breath. Bring it back.
Arm in arm, walk
your mind to a settled
space. A present place.
Make it rest. Let it
look at ground or
stones or grass
right in front of it.
In your body, mind.
In your mind, body.
Tell body, tell it:
YOU ARE HERE.
hans ostrom 2024
Terse Ballad
Hello, you.
Entrez vous.Look so fine.
Want some wine?
I've spent years
trapped in fears.
How 'bout you?
You seem blue.
Your eyes glisten.
I will listen.
Talk some more.
You don't bore.
Friends so long,
right or wrong.
Stay here, do.
I'll cook for you.
The world's bad:
Why we're sad.
Here you are,
come so far.
Think of how
to survive Now.
Later waits,
dealing fates.
Sure, let's hug.
I'm a lug.
Let's kiss, too.
Me and you.
hans ostrom 2024
Monday, November 25, 2024
Birds at Twilight
A black murmuration
of starlings surged like a pepperstorm, shifting shapes
against a pallid blue sky at dusk.
And a slow
procession of flying crows
crossed just above
us, a little crowd of corvids
flapping casually
toward a roost in a fir tree.
We wondered
about the hedge sparrows
hunkering down,
and where do juncos nest?
At twilight, birds
move. They migrate from
light to dark.
We find we're rewarded
when we watch
them as often as we can.
hans ostrom 2024
Sunday, November 24, 2024
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Friday, November 22, 2024
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Wind Advisory
No, a "wind advisory" does
not mean a meteorologistmakes suggestions to wind
about its breezy business.
Here it means driven winds
coming East off the volcanically inclined
Cascade Mountains into easily
offended Puget Sound,
which usually hosts Pacific
winds from West, warm. Something
tonight will rattle, bang, or both
outside this dwelling. We
never can predict what. We'll
listen to the ragged rhythm,
the knocks and ticks, not get
up, wake to debris-filled dawn.
hans ostrom 2024
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