"Late Plane," by Roger Ilsley

"Considering It All," by Roger Illsley

Simple Tools

A hefty stone--maybe blue,

gray, or tan--that fits in one
hand. Used to pound into the ground
a stake, or to hurl at a child-
threatening snake.

A stick, sturdy, with which
to pry up a stone or dig a root.
Or to knock fruit
off high branches. Or to jab
at a fish (oh, hungry, you wish
it would work.). Or to lean
on lightly as you walk; and walk.

Dried grass or vine
to use to entwine and braid
as you craft a basket
to be laid, laden, at the feet
of someone hungry.

hans ostrom 2025

"Old Padre," by Roger Illsley

The Girl Nicknamed Mouse

Yeah, you were 20, sitting on a bench

on a balmy Central Valley evening, breezes
puffing in from the Sacramento Delta.

You tell the girl nicknamed "Mouse"
"I love you" and she responds, "I like you."
She will go on to marry the guy

you work with in the dorm's cafeteria--he'll
become a surgeon. It's the way it works,
you realize. Have to move on.

She went to boarding school
with the daughter of the Philipinnes
dictator. You didn't. Anyway,

after the love-like exchange, she lights up
a Marlboro, you two have a nice chat, &
then you leave for your pot-washing shift.

hans ostrom 2025

Headwaters

The very last of all his aunts

and uncles have now died.

He thinks a lot about the dead
these days. Pictures them alive,
laughing, frowning, working,
teasing, busy maybe thinking
of all the dead they missed.

He's catching up to them,
the dead people he knew well.
He knows he isn't far behind.
He sees he's on that part

of the trail that's gone past
all the waterfalls, up near
the soggy grassland, the
headwaters of the stream--

yes, up where the sky
suddenly opens, accepting all.

hans ostrom 2025

Shame on those Particles

Here is my contribution

to astophysics: "The smallest
particles behave the most
impolitely." The sun blasts out

neutrinos that slip through Earth
as if it weren't here-and-there,
and a hundred billion of them
pass through our bodies

every second--without even asking
us and our other particles
how we're feeling. Rude.
There went another 100 billion

of them right through me like
arrows of light!" I want to shout,
"Hey, neutrinos, slow down!" But
I suspect that they would not respond.

hans ostrom 2025

Photo courtesy of Discover Magazine, which calls neutrinos "the ghost particles of the universe. © 25 mins ago    physic • humor • astophysics • subatomic-particles • earth • bodies   

"For Librarians"

For Librarians Poetry video

Jefferson Airplane -White Rabbit-

Rosemary Blossoms

 

The Princess adores

her pale blue kerchiefs.

Her equitable monarchy
shall not be transplanted.

She rewards evergreen
loyalty, distributes wealth

and affection to bees
and hummingbirds.

hans ostrom 2025

Cinquain: Cold Rain

Icy

rain raids here from
the West. Puddles become
ponds that ducks populate. Yes, we
shiver.

hans ostrom 2025

Night Bus in Frankfurt

On the night bus, I daydream.

I look into darknes through
reflections of riders. Out
there my mind wades in fog
on a muddy hillock, fearful
of hooves & the smell of marrow.
Turning from this,

I come back to the life of
the night bus, which calls to mind
a casino: well lighted, solemn,
ceaseless motion; shards of noise
and paper; tiny bells far off; fear
and weariness known by their
disguises: the effort of faces
to look placid, to glance only when
the other glances at another. Sweat
and minutes gather in muggy silence.

The night bus lights itself up
from inside like a grape.
The driver behind his curtain
is deaf to confessions, especially
to those of honest poverty. He
spits the name of my Wagenhalt
into an acid intercom,

opens darkness for me to enter.
After the sinister hiss of pneumatic
doors, after the last steel step,
I sniff the fog for spore of violence.

hans ostrom

THE KISS Trailer