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.