Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, COLLISION, by KAREN SWENSON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

COLLISION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In wind and change
Last Line: A hand of leaves into dawn.
Subject(s): Birds; Healing; Marriage; Cures; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


In wind and change
a maple flushed by autumn's fever
discarded scarlet hands into dusk -
a bird collided with himself in the glass door.

The children and I knelt before
that terror in a spoonful of feathers.
The breast shuddered in my hand.
The beak gasped its little flame of tongue.

Giving him a Kleenex box, a washcloth,
the absence of our odor,
we watched through the lamplit window
until he found his wings again.

Tonight, slamming into the glass
of your marriage,
you are stunned
by your image in your son's eyes.

My arms encircle
the pulsed wings of your breath,
as outside the wind deals
a hand of leaves into dawn.





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