Hans Ostrom’s “Location” imagines the self as a house. The speaker says “I am my home, / my real estate,” but memory keeps trying to dispute the ownership, almost like a legal claim, wanting him to live in the past—a “phantom / condominium of fate.” He resists that by describing himself as an ordinary, lived-in shack: there are rooms, a past out back, an attic hanging overhead, a pantry with brooms. That homely image is not glamorous, but it is his. The ending explains why this physical, present sense of self matters: at 4:13 a.m., blankets feel good and rain sounds fine as it hits the roof over him. The mood is intimate, stubborn, and comforted—he would rather inhabit his actual body and ordinary life than be trapped in memory.
Location — Summary
I am my home, my real estate. Memory contests the deed and title, would force me to live in recall, a phantom condominium of fate.
I am the shack of me, a self with rooms, a past out back, an attic that looms, a pantry with brooms.
This is why blankets at 4:13 a.m. feel (why rain badgering roof over the roof of me sounds) so fine, appeal.