Bio
James Owens's most recent book is Mortalia (FutureCycle Press, 2015). His poems and translations appear widely in literary journals, including recent or upcoming publications in Adirondack Review, The American Journal of Poetry, The Honest Ulsterman, and Southword. He earned an MFA at the University of Alabama and lives in a small town in northern Ontario.
James Owens
Sapphics: A Wish to Dream of Flowers
Gusts of snow are buffeting frosted windows.
Blasting winter rattles the loosened casement,
So a frore wind slides in and strokes the sleeper,
Threatening fevers,
Stirring want forgotten through warmer seasons,
When the sun-washed soil and subterranean,
Ready shoots and bulbs, at the bided signal,
Woke to their future.
Now, though, those then-future, unfolding blossoms
Scatter, frozen. White is the secret darkness
Colours dream in, lunar and blank. The sleeper
Shivers and sleeps on.