Rebecca Gayle Howell’s poems and translations appear in such publications as Ninth Letter, Ecotone, 32 Poems, Indiana Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Great River Review, and Poetry Daily. She is the recipient of the Jules Chametzky Prize in Literary Translation from The Massachusetts Review and a fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center. Her translation of Amal al-Jubouri's Hagar Before the Occupation/Hagar After the Occupation was chosen to inaugurate the Alice James Books Translation Series in 2011.
How to Preserve
Boil the water bath
Drop glassDrop hands
finger tipsspeaking mouth
tongueDrop memory
like glassdown into the bath
Bring up the heatslow so none notice
nothing shattersso the tongue can think
it might not be burnedmight go on telling
what does not want to be toldThis is how you preserve
Sterilize
Scaldbefore packing the jars
with gloryO Harvest
Hard wonand terrible
≈
How to Kill a Hen
Enter the night coop
whistlingThrough your teeth
singIn this awful world of sorrow
singIn this wicked path of sin
Tuck her
under your armand walk away
from the laying birdstheir cuckold morning
rising in their dumb wingsWalk away from sleep
Make sure her hollow bones
alone will be warmed by it,your wordless bellows
breastFor this is your gift to her:
Tell her
you never think of tomorrowTell her or
what you’d lose in the endEnter the night coop
whistlingRed light, so as not
to disturb the restLeave whistling
Climb the dust hillWhen you get up
to the houseRing once the orbit
of your failingover your head
like a breaking neckFor this is your gift to her:
You can hear your savior calling
barefaced and feather red
(Lines in italics are adapted from the song “Wicked Path of Sin” by Bill Monroe.)
≈
How to Become Civilized
Because she once ran forest and field
but came to you when called,loyal brute,
because her hooves are formedfor soil rich with decades,
fallen leaves, long rainsfor earth that gives way
beneath foot and weight and foragingbecause she did come
but sometimes went astraywe now keep the pen
keep controlBuild it with tall walls
Build it long and withindoor / outdoor
spaceMake the pig think
she has a choiceshe can defecate
away from where she eatsMake her think she can still be clean
Build a wood floor, keep the angle highso you can wash down her shit and piss
if you have the timeso you can come to her
and take each leg up, each hoofand scrub off the filth
or else, she’ll swellher feet sore from splinter
and inert daysand she’ll just
lie downher muscles in atrophy
her meat in ruinand you will have to quit
whatever it is you are doingand take a stick
and prod hertake your boot
and kick herget up get up
If you have the timebuild a pen, keep its walls high
She will adaptThis is how we were civilized
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