poem | Josephine Rowe « Overland literary journal

poem | Josephine Rowe

OVERLAND 199
winter 2010
ISBN 978-0-9805346-6-5
published 31 May 2010

The Man Who Shot Lions

We didn’t know that about him then
when we started reading his books.

But once we found out, they were always
there – in the trenches of his war stories;

in the grandstands at his racetracks and
boxing matches; present at his bull fights

or padding softly through the dirty Parisian
streets; there were always the lions. Solemn

slow-moving beasts whose large paws made
no noise, and whose whiskey-coloured eyes

missed nothing

Josephine Rowe’s most recent collection of short stories is How a Moth Becomes a Boat (Hunter). She is the poetry editor for harvest.
© Josephine Rowe
Overland 199-winter 2010, p. 100

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