Centerfold - bad boy (1984)

They Become the Exhibit

 In a queue, people shuffle

toward a museum's door.
Finally all inside, they take off
coats, hats, gloves, scarves.
Winter chill did not come in.

The walls of the single vast
room remain blank. No art
depends from them. The people
sit or stand or lie and examine
each other, and each one

becomes a work of art, and each
one's a startling rendering. Shadow
and light, noses in profile or not,
heads, shirted shoulders,
bellies, lines and angles.

Sculptures alive, paintings
that breathe, dancers in repose.
Some people seize delight
from being seen & stared at.
Others look away or down.
Glances ricochet, stick, or slide.

The people often smile. This
is one of the finest exhibits
they've attended, attending
to themselves, their bodily
being in Time.

Hans Ostrom 2024

A Merest Song of Gratitude

 I own hundreds

of regrets.
I've made dozens
of bad bets.
I lavish love
on household pets.
I am a wealthy man.

It seems I always
had a job.
Cash in pocket,
corn on cob.
Clock on wall,
watch on fob.
I am a wealthy man.

I have love and hope--
interests, too.
These help to ward off
deepest blue.
People to see,
things to do.
I am I am I am
a wealthy man.

Hans Ostrom 2024

Dreaming, Again

 Editors who loathe the Linear

cut and splice hybrid scenes
as I lie on padded islands
in sleep's softly surging sea.

Under slumber, I lumber
into the theater of these films
like a weightless rhino.

Swing low, sweet
licorice lariat, wrapping up
my stubby hooved legs.

Sing low, buzzing
baritone, I'm lullabied
like incubating eggs.

Hans Ostrom 2024

"After the Winter," by Claude McKay

Simply Red - If You Don't Know Me By Now (Symphonica In Rosso)

Almost All Right

Hiram takes the pills

for lifelong "clinical depression,"
which means "often more
than simply sad." When
the pills don't work, he

knows only one way
to try to climb out of the well:
to turn outward & do something
for someone else. Help them.

Connecting again like that:
it's like a rope. Hiram grabs it,
climbs slowly, his feet finding
niches in the deep well's
slick stone walls. Until he's

out, sitting on the ground,
breathing, looking around.
Ah, yes, the world again--
and it's almost bright,
and I'm almost all right.

Hans Ostrom 2024

Comedian Larry David calls Trump "such a little baby" for his election lies

BEACH BOYS Their Hearts Were Full of Spring

Paul Simon - Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Official Video)

The Mountains Taught

They protected you with danger,

those High Sierra Mountains.

Cliffs and snakes, rockslides,

flooded rivers, icy narrow

twisting highways, dirt

roads cut casually into hills,

hours between you and a

doctor or hospital. Chainsaws,

knives, guns, lightning,

freezing temperatures. 

Wherever you went, 

whatever you did, you kept

caution in your pocket

like a talisman. You quickly

came to equate useless

risk with lack of thought,

not with bravery. 

Hans Ostrom 2024

Bookshelves

In a musty library room

in a friend's old abode,

dark wooden shelves,

floor to ceiling, look like

rows of secrets, willing

to be opened like gates

and doors and windows

and minds. To reach

for one book, clothbound

with no dust jacket, and 

take it from its snug space,

fulfills a desire. For what?

You don't entirely know,

do you? But there it is,

the book, quiet and pliant

in your hands, centuries

of the printing art floating

invisibly behind it. The rest

of the books on all the shelves

and walls look on,

like spectators at a stadium--

but they're the quietest

audience ever. A clock's

bell dings, softly, softly. 

Hans Ostrom 2024

Longtime Married

Two candle stubs

in old candlesticks

drown their flames 

in wax. A few strings

of gray smoke disperse

in the dim, darkening 

room at dusk.

We're both quiet

as we look, together

and separately, 

into advancing darkness.

Finally, one of us

says, "Well, . . . ."

and the other says,

'Yes, . . .". We rise

from the table,

pick up the dinner plates,

silverware, glasses,

and take them to 

the kitchen where one

of us flicks on the light. 

Hans Ostrom 2024