Age Two

by Elizabeth Swann

The feisty robin
greets us at the window,
hammering
his own fine reflection.

You toddle outside
and in the sunlight
find him,
fallen like a stone
onto the rough wood deck,
one ebony eye frozen,
two gnats hovering
at its corner.
The bird’s black feet
clutch air, legs stiff
as winter branches.

I watch death dawn
in your dark eyes.


ELIZABETH SWANN is an MFA candidate at Queens University of Charlotte in NC. Her recent work has appeared in Kakalak, Wild Goose Poetry Review, and the anthology Journey Without. A finalist in the Guy Owen Prize 2009, she has work forthcoming in Southern Poetry Review.