In October the House Draws Near the Woods by James Owens
The maple's red leaves
lick the fumbling wind
and break their bindings.
I, too, want flight, the desire
like a prolonged absence of salt.
Waiting, suspended,
I imagine the taste of the earth,
gritty and haunted,
after so many have fallen.
James Owens's newest book is Family Portrait with Scythe (Bottom Dog Press, 2020). His poems and translations appear widely in literary journals, including recent or upcoming publications in Grain, Dalhousie Review, Presence, Queen's Quarterly, and Honest Ulsterman. He earned an MFA at the University of Alabama and lives in a small town in northern Ontario.