"Julia," by Robert Herrick

"Solitude," by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"Pastel: Masks and Faces," by Arthur Symons

"What Did the Fisherman Say to the Fish?" by Hans Ostrom

1. Nothing.
2. "There you are, you little bastard, got you."
3. "You really swallowed that thing, didn't you?"
4. "My brain is more highly evolved than yours, and this is proof!"
5. "Have I caught you at a bad time?"
6. "I don't know why I fish."
7. ("'m drunk.")
8. ("How does it feel to drown in air?")
9. Nothing

"Escape," by Georgia Douglas Johnson

"The Ghost of Henry James," by Hans Ostrom

"Faith and Works," by Muriel Spark

"Faith Is a Fine Invention," by Emily Dickinson

"First Class Boarding," by Hans Ostrom

At the airport,
the difference
between
the general-boarding area
and
the First Class one
consists of a rug
on which First Class
was stitched
by a machine.
Also a short blue nylon band
suggests a barrier
between
the two areas.
These things we do.
These distinctions we make.


hans ostrom 2014

"A Mona Lisa," by Angelina Weld Grimké

"Thinking at a Funeral," by Hans Ostrom

It's sad to think that those little
private,unfounded beliefs (blue underwear
will bring me luck)will die
with each of us,
along with the complex cultures
we create in our minds, whereas something
truly silly like labeling water H-2-0
will persist indefinitely. I was

thinking this at a funeral when
I was supposed to be listening
to a "friend" of the deceased
talk almost exclusively about
himself, not the life of
the dead man. Dear Lord:
there are over 7 billion
vagabond human minds on Earth;
please advise.



hans ostrom 2014

"Expect Delays," by Hans Ostrom

"On the Balcony," by D.H. Lawrence

"Twenty Years Hence," by Walter Savage Landor

"Mist, Earthquake, Grace," by Hans Ostrom

"To Helen," by Edgar Allan Poe

"Friendco," by Hans Ostrom

One From Maya Angelou, R.I.P.

"A Girl," by Michael Field

"How Many Times Do I Love Thee?" by Thomas Lovell Beddoes

"God Scatters Beauty," by Walter Savage Landor

"Fragmentary Blue," by Robert Frost

"Why?" by Walter de la Mare

"Irony," by Amy Lowell

"Weak Days," by Hans Ostrom

Sunday was a damned done-day,
if you ask me, and you didn't.
Monday was a numb-day.
Wednesday? What a clot
of consonants. That mid-
dumb-day did not
find me inconsolable.
But still. Thursday,
a blur's day. Tues,
the Blues, an out-of-
order cruise. Fly-Day
night, I saw old pals
getting buzzed and sat
there in a corner like
a spider that's lost
its appetite. Saturday
always seems to want
to perform like
an Ur-Day. Academics
used to like to add
Ur to words. They're
always doing shit like that.
Also,there's always a missing
day in every week. It's that
one on which we do
exactly what we're
supposed to do.

"Venus Transiens," by Amy Lowell

"Houses," by F.S. Flint

"God Moves in a Mysterious Way," by William Cowper

"A Golden Day," by Paul Laurence Dunbar

"Amalfi," by Richard Aldington

"The Painter," by Gwendolyn Bennett

from "Quatrains"

"Lucretia Borgia's Hair," by Walter Savage Landor

"Red May," by A. Mary F. Robinson

from an anthology edited by Sara Teasdale, published in 1917.

"Preparedness," by Edwin Markham

"The Lotos Flower," by Heinrich Heine

“On Dürer’s Melancolia," by William Watson

"A Well, and the Cherry Trees, Swaying," by Alexey Tolstoy

Alexey Tolstoy's father was a distant relative of Leo Tolstoy.

"Rain Music," by Joseph S. Cotter, Jr.

"In the Desert," by Stephen Crane

"How to Be a Cat," by Hans Ostrom

"The Brevity of Life," by Ernest Dowson

"Crow Installation," by Hans Ostrom

A crow had crapped
on a gray sidewalk
this morning:

a big blopping dollop
of liquid in a heart-shape.

A gray-green dominated
this installation
of public art, with

undertones of blue-black
and a swirl of white:
fantastic! The consistency
was that of diluted
acrylic paint.


hans ostrom

"Look Younger With Natural Ingredients," by Hans Ostrom

Look younger
with natural ingredients. Look
natural with younger
ingredients. Eliminate

bags and wrinkles. Bag
those wrinkles in
wrinkled bags. Yeah,
you're going to look

younger, according
to yourself. To others,
you'll look the age
you are; still.

People you're
attracted to won't
be attracted to you:
nothing new.

But you'll feel younger.
Briefly. Maybe. Give it a try!
Four easy payments. Shipping
and handling not included.

hans ostrom 2014

"Above the Dock," by T.E. Hulme

"The Arrow and the Song," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"The Anguish," by Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Now That Phones Are With Them," by Hans Ostrom

 ("Is this a good time to call?" --Old Saying)


Now that phones are with them,
everywhere and always,
it is always
and never a good time to call. Life,
a series of interruptions,
has become a shattered series

of interrupted, re-continued,
dis-directed ruptures. Like
a batty princess to a frog,
people speak loudly at something
in their palms.  Confused
courtiers look on.

One hand's fingers
tap like spiders' legs
on plasti-glass surfaces.
Apps become vats
into which to pour
attention. Heads bent,

faces slack, eyes distracted:
people's minds leave their
bodies to go to that other space,
that cloud which is forever
and presently calling.


--hans ostrom 2014

"Eel Grass," by Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Tapestry," by Langston Hughes

"Sea Calm," by Langston Hughes