James Owens’s most recent collection of poems is Mortalia (FutureCycle Press, 2015). His poems, stories, and translations appear widely in literary journals, including recent or upcoming publications in The Fourth River, Waxwing, Adirondack Review, Tule Review, The American Journal of Poetry, and Southword. He earned an MFA at the University of Alabama and lives in Indiana and northern Ontario.
Fire Reflection
Perhaps it was only a glint of fire
off some shining piece of furniture
that, long after, the child
recalls like a confession.
And if, in later life, one day,
much like the others, wounds him,
that is because he mistook some risk
for a promise.
And let’s not forget music
that so early swept him
toward that absence complicated
by an overflowing soul.
Reflet du Feu
Peut-être n’était-ce qu’un reflet du feu
sur quelque meuble luisant
que beaucoup plus tard l’enfant
se rappelle comme un aveu.
Et si dans sa vie de plus tard
un jour, comme tant d’autres, le blesse,
c’est qu’il a pris comme promesse
un quelconque hasard.
N’oublions non plus la musique
qui tôt l’avait entraîné
vers l’absence que complique
une âme comblée…
Funeral
Among the rapid machines,
annoyed and rapacious,
traversing the new void
of indomitable space,
crawls the slow slug of a funeral .…
But the stars are slower still.
Enterrement
Parmi les machines rapides
qui, agacées et rapaces,
traversent le nouveau-vide
de l’indomptable espace,
passe la lente limace d’un enterrement…
Mais les astres sont plus lents.
