Octopus

^{translated from the Catalan by Peter Bush}

                                    Little remains.
                                    We were very near.
                                    Nothing remains.
                                     —Fran García

Group of individuals
who inhabit the depths of the sea
                                         hanging
                                         in the substrata
or slipping along the surface.
Benthic species, by name.
With two big eyes giving them
                                         excellent vision
changing shape and texture
all dependent on what                      luck brings

Why speak of octopus       if I want to speak of the shipwrecked?

Men and women                who float in the sea
                                           like colored buoys
In one year, two thousand six hundred buoys:
the same number as inhabitants of my village

There’s no shore to bring them close, deep
shadows dreaming of            another promised
                                              land and cursing.