Messenger

Messenger

James Owens

As I trudge from the gates of the park
after a glum slump around the paths,

the young girl who is now arriving,
holding her father’s hand and drawing

the summer morning sunlight to her,
perhaps eighteen months old,

in a flowery yellow dress and floppy hat,
and who, every few steps, pulls free

of her father’s guiding hand and bends
from the waist, like someone

who has just learned how,
to touch her jelly-sandaled

feet, grins up at me to include
this stranger in her astonishment

and reports, “Toes!”.

---

James Owens
Poet

James’ 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 The Christian Century, Dappled Things, Clerestory, Relief and The Windhover. He earned an MFA at the University of Alabama and lives in a small town in northern Ontario.

Photography by Afonso Vieira