Une vie en moins

For earthweal.

Une vie en moins

Et encore une vie ôtée, sa grâce brisée.
Je ne verrai plus sa forme gracieuse, long-patte,
couleur de feuilles en automne.
Elle ne tournera plus sa tête si fine
ses yeux de biche, me dire, je te vois.
Je ne verrai pas ses petits grandir,
gambader dans le pré,
parce qu’on a ôté la vie de la beauté
avec ses grosses mains de rustre,
avec le laideur de son cœur.

One life less

Another life taken, grace broken,
and I’ll see no more that graceful silhouette,
long-legs, colour of autumn leaves.
No more she’ll turn her head, so fine,
doe-eyed, to say, I see you.
I’ll not see her young ones grow,
chase about the meadow,
for you’ve taken the life of beauty
with your heavy brutish hands,
with the ugliness of your heart.

Because all life is here, in this small place, this moment of small tragedy.
All of human grossness is in the act of a boor, in the unthinking act that destroys a life.
That act, finger on the trigger, echoes again and again the world over, in the mines and factories, the safaris, cruise ships, circuses and zoos, the forests maimed, oceans defiled, the caged and miserable.
The common factor, the finger on the trigger, human, greedy, selfish.
I curl up around my universal hurt and keen in silence, seeing no remedy.

Advertisement